Like a Phoenix
by Vusatunell
Summary: In which Harry is finally killed by Voldermort, and then sent back into a different dimension. A do-it over fic. Gray!Prodigy!Harry, mistaken!Dumbledore, Good!Draco, more or less OK!Weasleys
1. Prologue

**Okay, this is a new story. **

**This idea just popped into my head and I'm afraid that this somehow seems more appealing than my other story. I also currently have an authors block so I will be concentrating on this story for some time. **

**Disclaimer: I have never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter and I will never own Harry Potter. (Although, I wish I did.)**

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The Forbidden Forest was dark, the fog covered the ground making the figures standing in the clearing look like they were floating slightly.

It was startling how quickly the bright light of the sky over the small clearing was all but extinguished. As in some cartoon, the silhouettes of branches reached towards them with emaciated arms and fingers like beings at once terrified and furious. And as the light vanished, like a blind person, Harry became hyper sensitive to sounds, sounds far different than the cheery chirping of the now darkened meadow. Less hopeful bird song as in mourning; the tentative creak of a lost cricket's lament, and far off - but perhaps not all that far off - a hollow intermittent drumming sound almost like a coded warning.

And then all of a sudden every single sound seemed to have been shut off. Probably due to a silencing spell from Voldemort.

The man was standing opposite of Harry, with the Death-Eaters standing around the two powerful men and holding their breath, waiting for the last duel to start.

_Neither can live while the other survives, _indeed.

Voldemort raised his wand slowly, aiming it right at Harry's heart. Harry didn't even seem to care enough to raise his wand. The snake-man examined the bane of his existence with dislike.

The-boy-who-lived was now a man, and looked like he was in his mid fifties. The very same age Voldemort had been when they first met in Godric's Hollow. He seemed tired, tired of the war which had long since passed. The Chosen One had been part of the rebel group which continued to fight even after Voldemort conquered Britain in the year 1998. His friends, his family and the small rebel group called The Order of the Phoenix were all dead as he soon would also be.

Voldermort twirled the wand in his hand in anticipation, it had all come down to this.

Harry meanwhile just kept staring at the man who had destroyed him and his life. Why couldn't he just end this now, just send the killing curse and be done with it?

The man was too dramatic for his own good.

The only sign of life now seemed to be the twirling wand in Voldemort's hand. If not for that everyone could have passed off as a statue. Then slowly a single tear flowed down Harry's face.

From his eye, all to the corner of his mouth and then to his chin when it finally slipped off his face and fell down on the ground.

That tear symbolized every death, every tragedy, every mistake made in the war and after. For Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black Amelia Bones, Emmeline Vance, Florean Fortescue, Mrs. Abbott, Albus Dumbledore, The Weasly family, Hermione Granger, Charity Burbage, Hedwig, Alastor Moody, Teddy Tonks, Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, Dobby, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Andromeda Tonks, Colin Creevey, Minevra McGonogall, Rubeus Hagrid, Severus Snape and every other person who had been caught in the crossfire.

Then suddenly, Harry smiled. It was one of those full-blown, happy smiles. Voldermort was so taken back by the sight of the sudden bright and radiant thing that appeared in the dull and dark clearing that he seemed to flinch back slightly. That seemed to suddenly break the spell hanging over them all.

Voldermort snarled as he straightened and rose to his full height. He was about to send the killing curse when the chosen one suddenly burst into a full-blown laugh. The Snake-man snarled once more and finally threw the killing curse. It flew in slow motion, straight at Harry who didn't move or even make a movement to avoid the deadly curse. And just as the curse was going to hit, he stopped laughing and a sudden smirk appeared on his face as he welcomed death into his arms just as many years ago a man also in the possession of the cloak of invisibility had done.

When the killing curse struck him, the-once-boy-who-lived, now the-man-who-died fell to the ground with a thump. For a few seconds silence continued to reign over the clearing, then finally all the Death-Eaters started cheering.

It started as a slow and quiet shout which then suddenly evolved into a loud cheer.

For a while no one seemed to notice the second figure which had fallen a few seconds later. But then as slowly the cheer quieted down the Death-Eaters turned toward their master to offer their congratulations but instead of the proud tall Snake-human hybrid they had come to expect they were faced with a pile of ash already flowing into the wind.

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**Okay, that was a very short chapter. Then again, that was a prologue and I have never seen a very long one so... **

**I hope you enjoyed it. **


	2. The Genius

**Thank you so much for reading this story so far. **

**:D**

**Disclaimer: I never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter and I will never own Harry Potter (But we can all dream, eh?)**

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Harry Potter groaned as he was suddenly jolted awake. He flickered his eyes open and was suddenly faced with two blurry figures standing above him. One with a huge mop of messy black hair and the other with bright red hair.

How was this possible? How was he alive again...

His thoughts were interrupted again as he was suddenly prodded in his stomach.

"James!" Said the red-head. Harry's stopped breathing. He recognized that voice. He heard it in Snape's memories... His mother... "Don't do that! He's a baby, just a month old! You know how babies are, he could start crying any moment because of that."

Harry was suddenly aware that he was lying in a crib and that James Potter was staring down at him with fascination as if he'd never seen a baby before. Suddenly Harry was struck with the seriousness of the situation, he was in the past. Somehow, Voldemort had yet again failed to kill him. Harry smiled suddenly, he had thwarted the Dark-Lords plans again. Then again, it hadn't been that hard, he was at that point the master of the three hallows. Therefore making him the master of Death.

He was once more interrupted from his thoughts when there was loud cooing from above. His eyes went into focus once more as he stared up at the two adults.

"He smiled! James! That was his first smile!" Lily Potter exclaimed. Harry blinked as suddenly everything came into focus, that must be his magic correcting his sight. Well, that was strange. A baby that age shouldn't have had such a developed magical core. Then again, if his memories had gone back in time it was possible that his skills and magic had also tagged along.

He'd test parseltongue out later, when the adults weren't there.

"He's so developed for his age." James Potter muttered, "Shouldn't he smiling until he's like four months."

Lily turned to James, "How do you even know that?" She asked with amazement.

"I read some parenting books, you know. I do want to be a wonderful father. No but really, it says in the book that he shouldn't be able to smile yet, because usually at that age babies haven't yet discovered the muscles in their face." James said. Lily turned to him in amazement as if she couldn't believe that her husband had actually read a book.

Harry blinked at him, yes, that was true. Technically all his brain cells and everything up there shouldn't have been so evolved. He shouldn't have been able to think properly for about another year. Harry smiled once more, for the benefit of his parents and then raised a hand as if to take James' glasses off his face.

James wasn't expecting that and Harry grabbed the lens. As the man was leaning down, the glasses fell down easily. Harry grabbed them with a hand and started sucking on the edge. Then acting as if they tasted bad, he made a face and threw them aside. He then turned his attention to his thumb and started sucking on it.

There were gasps from above and Harry raised his head to look at Lily and James who were staring down at him.

James quickly grabbed his glasses and put them on with a grin on his face. He then picked Harry up, high over his head and swung him around with a grin. When he stopped his grinned at his son.

"Who's my little genius!?"

Lily smiled at the scene, these were the types of moments which she just wanted never to end. Where the war seemed to be so far away. The war. The prophecy.

Her face fell as she remembered the prophecy, she hoped that the Dark Lord wouldn't come after them. If he did, they were both doomed and Harry would then become the child of the prophecy.

James must have realized what Lily was thinking about as he pulled Lily into a one-armed hug, his other arm supporting baby Harry.

"Shhhhh, everything is going to be all right. Don't think about the war, or the prophecy, live the moment."

Lily smiled up at him with tears in her eyes. She was so lucky to have James.

At that moment the fireplace flared into life, turning a bright green, and Albus' head appeared in the fire-place.

"Is it all right if I come through?" He asked with a smile. Lily nodded and seconds later the fireplace burst into green flames again and a tall, old man stepped out.

He was dressed in a dark blue robe with different constellations moving about, with a matching hat. This made a strong contrast with his white beard which was peculiar on its own all ready.

Albus Dumbledore beamed at them all and his eyes twinkled strongly.

His attention was then turned to Harry who had started pulling his beard. Harry grinned up at Dumbledore and with a final tug let go, seconds later the beard turned neon pink. There was a gasp from all of the adults and they grinned at Harry.

"Accidental magic at one month old! Brilliant! Simply brilliant!" Dumbledore exclaimed with a grin. His eyes were twinkling at full blast.

"Ah! Now we have another prankster in the family!" James said happily. Lily Potter frowned and grabbed the morning edition of the _Daily Prophet_ and hit James with it.

James instantly went down on one knee and looked up at Lily, "I beg for thy forgiveness, my dear Lady Lillian!"

Lily rolled her eyes and patted him on the head. Harry giggled along with Dumbledore at their antics.

"You have him well-trained," Dumbledore said with a smile. James rose with a grin as Lily gave the headmaster a sheepish smile.

"So... er... Professor Dumbledore? Are you going to charm your beard back into your original beard?" James said eyeing the beard suspiciously as if it was going to attack him because it was pink. Dumbledore grinned.

"No!" He exclaimed cheerfully as if it was obvious that the beard should be pink, "Now, James call me Albus, I am not your professor any more."

"Oh... er... Sure, pro-er-Albus."

Harry giggled at the exchange and tried to look as if he was concentrating when all the adults looked at him. He frowned as if he was remembering something. Then he opened his mouth and forced the word out his tiny child throat,"A-A-Albws"

To his frustration, his baby mouth wasn't as evolved as the rest of him and his tongue wouldn't exactly move how he wanted it to move. His mind just seemed to move to fast for his body. Anyhow, that seemed enough to leave the three adults in a stunned silence. Harry couldn't blame them, how often does one see a one-month-old-baby already trying out simple words.

Dumbledore's eyes widened as he stared at Harry, who spied a tear rolling down his cheek. The man's eyes were full with emotion at being the first word out of a baby's mouth, nevertheless they twinkled as if fireworks had been lit inside his eyes.

"This boy is going to be a genius!" He exclaimed. James grinned at him.

"He's going to be a prankster!" James was then rewarded by getting hit by the _Daily Prophet_ once more.**  
**

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**ABOUT A YEAR LATER-31 OCTOBER 1981-HALLOWEEN**

"Take Harry and go!" came the voice of James Potter from the kitchen. Lily closed her eyes to compose herself and was thrown into action when James spoke once more, "It's him, Lily! Go! NOW!"

Lily took a deep breath and ran up the stairs to her genius child. The moment had come. Her child would now become the child of the prophecy.

Harry was lying down in his bed playing with his toys and using very good vocabulary for a child his age.

Blinking, to get herself out of her day-dream, Lily, grabbed hold of Harry's hand.

"Look, Harry we're leaving. Remember the bad man I told you about? He's here, so we have to be very silent so that he doesn't hear us... Think of this as a game of hide and seek... Understood?"

Harry nodded, knowing the moment had come. He couldn't stop Voldemort at this age, his body was simply not evolved enough to channel the magic he needed, his parents would be killed, as well as the unborn child Lily Potter now carried.

Lily then grabbed a pinch of floo-powder and thew it into the fireplace. The fire-place stayed as it was and didn't turn green like it was supposed to.

"Damn!" Lily swore, not really caring any more what type of words her son heard, "He cut off the floo connection."

Her thoughts were interrupted as there was a shout of avada kedavra from downstairs. Then there was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. Lily closed her eyes and then opened them again as she hugged Harry.

"Harry, dear Harry, I don't know what will happen now, but know that I will always love you, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life."

"I love you too mum," Harry said with dead seriousness as he gazed into his mother's eyes. Lily smiled sadly and wiped a tear away from Harry's cheek which had appeared there.

The door was then flung open and Lily spun around.

"Please, kill me, not Harry! Please!" She pleaded. Voldermort sneered at her. Harry examined him, he had always wondered what Voldermort had looked like before his re-birth. He looked basically the same as he had in his sixth year at Hogwarts, only older. His eyes were a deep crimson red.

"Stand aside mudblood! And I might spare you." Voldermort said. Lily shook her head frantically.

"You'll have to get through me first, you bastard!"

Voldermort snarled and threw a killing curse. Lily Potter instantly fell down to the ground limply. Her once bright green eyes now dull and lifeless, staring ahead, unseeing. Harry stared at her body with tears in his eyes. He had gotten quite attached to his parents after a year.

Voldermort turned his wand on Harry and smirked at the boy. Harry stood tall and proud, staring defiantly into his eyes. If Voldermort was taken back with the amount of emotion in the boy's eyes, he didn't show it.

Then the curse was cast. It seemed to happen in slow motion. The curse hit Harry on the forehead just as Harry felt a blinding pain in that area. Then the curse back-fired and killed Voldemort's body. A black soul rose from the ashes and left through the open window. Harry concentrated on his scar and used all his magic to expell the horcrux from his forehead before it could take hold of him.

With raw power, he managed to drive it out and threw it into the cursed flames. It burnt instantly and Harry could almost hear the cry of pain coming form Voldemort.

...

Sirius Black was strolling down the street not far from the Potter's cottage after buying some booze for him and James along with some muggle sweets for little Harry, when he heard a loud blast, followed by a sudden burst of flame coming from the general direction where the Potter cottage could be found.

Instantly all thoughts of having a small get together were out of Sirius' mind. The goods that he had been holding in his hands dropped to the ground with a thump due to his shock.

"No..." Sirius whispered. And then he grabbed his motorcycle and sped off.

Minutes later he was standing in front of the destroyed Potter cottage. It was burning, the left side more so than the right side and Sirius suspected that the explosion that had happened in the nursery had probably initiated the fire.

The nursery... Harry.

He had failed him as a godfather. Sirius suddenly felt the tears sliding down his face and he raised a hand to wipe them away. That was when he heard a child cry out. Instantly he was moving.

The air in the house was hot and dry. Smoke was slowly seeping through the shut doors and Sirius found himself coughing. He sped up to the nursery to find it in flames, except for one singe small circle with a diameter of half a meter. Harry was standing in the middle with his hands extended outwards so that he gave the appearance of pushing the cursed fire away.

Sirius didn't react instantly as he stared with wonder at the scene before him. This was amazing that a small child, just over a year old could cast powerful magic most adult wizards had trouble doing _with _a wand.

The loud noise of a column holding up the structure falling with a loud bang roused him from his daydream and he instantly drew his wand and with a simple accio, Harry was in his arms. Seconds later he apparated just outside the cottage as the part of the house he had been in previously collapsed.

Sirius let out a sigh of relief and noted that Harry was staring at him with those expressionless eyes.

"Mum and dad are dead, aren't they? Voldemort killed them." He said in an expressionless voice. Sirius set the young child down and crouched down in front of Harry.

"Harry, you are a very intelligent child, so I won't lie to you. Yes, they are dead, and they will never come back..." Sirius said gently and he hugged the boy in front of him.

There was a moment of silence, then suddenly both wizards started crying and holding onto each other for dear life, then slowly Harry started to slip off to the lands of Morpheus, as the warm body of his godfather held onto him.

The darkness was welcome.

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**Well, there you are, my first chapter is done. I hope that future chapters will be longer if I don't get an authors block.  
**

**Anyway, just below the story there is a button which reads "review"... *hint hint***

**Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for reading.**


	3. The Dream

**Right... Thanks for reading so far. Thank you for leaving reviews, so those who did, I want to dedicate this chapter to you because you gave me the motivation I needed to write this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter and I never will own Harry Potter (unless a miracle happens)**

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**The next day...Privet Drive #4**

Petunia Dursley was happy to say that she was completely normal, unlike her abnormal sister and husband. While growing up, she had envied Lily's power, envied the way that their parents doted on her and congratulated her every time she did something like levitate an object.

That was all bearable, well, until that Snape boy came into the picture. He could do all those things his sister could do, he even told her she was a witch. Petunia had watched seemingly from afar as slowly her sister drifted away from her only to join the greasy-haired freak.

And then the letter came. That destroyed their friendship and family completely. Their parents were overjoyed, of course, and suddenly Lily was gone to that freak school. The Evans family never had a lot of money and that _school _cost a lot.

All of Petunias dreams of becoming a first-class lawyer were destroyed to tatters. She was then condemned to join that horrible local public school while her sister bathed in money around all those aristocrats from her world. Hell! She even married one.

Suddenly she was Lady Lillian of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter married to the 30th Earl James of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter. Petunia had met James Potter once and she didn't want to admit it but the man was quite a good catch. He was handsome, popular, rich, politically powerful, charismatic, interesting, intelligent and on top of all that, in love with Lily. And of course she despised him because of that.

Lily was all Petunia had once hoped to be. She had always hoped to become independently powerful, rich and have someone in love with her. Of course her looks didn't help at all, all the beauty genes (if there was such a thing) in the family had gone to the red-head. Meanwhile, Petunia was stuck with a horse neck and a thin and scrawny frame with absolutely no beautiful curves.

So, obviously no normal and mentally healthy man would have married a woman like her, bitter, unpopular, uninteresting, harsh and _ugly. _So Petunia was stuck with the worst man of the lot, from her graduation class.

The fat, unpopular, _plebeian, _slow and mentally unhealthy Vernon Dursley. He had been the bully of the school and had quite a bit of power over the rest of the students there. His parents had a little money and after their "unfortunate" death, Vernon was left with all the money.

Of course Petunia's parents hadn't approved. They had wanted her to marry someone like James Potter and have a happy and big family. They never even lived to hear of Petunia's pregnancy. Some drunk drugs-dealer had been driving rather fast down the road, trying to escape from the police when he hit two people on the side walk. These two people just _had _to be her parents.

She had cried for days after that.

But after those couple of days had gone by, she had collected herself and forced herself to forget Lily, forget her dreams and try and be content with the baby she carried in her womb and the husband who brought the food onto the table.

It was with the thought of food that she slowly woke from her sleep. She glanced at the clock, only to see that it was already seven thirty. Ah, well she could make breakfast. Petunia slowly sat up and tip-toed out of the room, glancing at Vernon as he turned over in the bed with a moan. She sneered at him with disgust. He was probably having one of those wet-dreams once more.

She walked across the hallway, to the room in which Dudley's crib was in. Petunia opened the door silently and glanced about. Dudley was still asleep and hadn't started crying. Yet. She let a smile grace her face as she looked at the one year old fondly.

She tip-toed downstairs and started making breakfast. Just as she was finishing up the bacon she saw Vernon already sitting in his chair at the table, a greedy expression on his face as he stared at the food still sitting on the kitchen counter. He was already dressed in his work clothes, but his tie wasn't properly done, and his shirt was wrinkled and untucked. He had somehow even managed to button his shirt wrong in haste to eat some food.

Inwardly, rolling her eyes, she grabbed the plates and placed them on the wooden table.

"Good morning, Vernon," She said in a very disinterested voice. Vernon just grunted in acknowledgement as he was already gorging himself on the greasy food. Petunia wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I'll just go up and bring Duddles, he'll also want to eat."

Vernon just grunted again and continued eating.

Sighing, Petunia started up the stairs just as Dudley started to wail. Sighing in frustration she quickly picked him up from the crib and rushed downstairs. Once Petunia had placed him in the child seat and strapped him in she remembered that the she had forgotten to pick up the milk, the milkman left on her porch every morning.

Cursing silently, so neither Vernon nor Dudley heard her she quickly opened the door silently hoping that the milk wasn't spoilt yet due to the fact that it had been in the sun for so long.

She was expecting to see the usual eight small bottles of milk, thus she was surprised to see a small bundle on her doorstep. Frowning, she turned her head to the right and then to the left, checking out whether the person who had left the bundle there was around and whether any neighbours were spying on her.

She saw no threat and quickly put the bottles inside of the house. She slowly crouched down next to the bundle as if expecting a dangerous animal to suddenly attack her.

She blinked when she saw a cute little face staring right up her. A baby. The baby. Lily and James' baby.

She examined him, silently cursing the brilliant and intelligent emerald eyes. The boy would be handsome in the future, that much was clear. His face was cute and the baby fat still had to disappear. When it did, Petunia had no doubt that the aristocratic features would come out.

His hair was black and Petunia was sure that if she touched it, it would have felt like silk. It was a sharp contrast to the pale skin. Her breath was caught in her throat as she suddenly saw the lightning bolt scar on the left side of his head. It seemed like it had been done recently. The baby smiled slightly at her and gestured to the small envelope that had been placed on the ground next to him.

Frowning, Petunia grabbed the envelope made of the same heavy material as all of Lily's supplies had been and broke of the wax seal.

_Dear Petunia Dursley, _

_My name is Albus Dumbledore, I do hope you remember me from all those years ago when I corresponded with you. _

_I bring you some tragic news. James and Lily are dead. They were murdered by a dark wizard when one of their friends betrayed them. Somehow their son managed to defeat the leader of the terrorist group so there are some terrorists out there after his blood, therefore I have taken the necessary precautions to keep the boy and your family safe.  
_

_I urge you to adopt the boy and treat him as if he were your own son. The protection shall fall when the boy turns seventeen and after that he shall be able to leave your house as seventeen is the age to become an adult in the wizarding world.  
_

_Thank you. _

_Sincerely, _

_Albus Dumbledore_

Petunia drew in a large breath and glanced at the boy who was staring at him with those unnerving eyes. No! Petunia wouldn't allow someone like _her _to come into her house and destroy her family like Lily had done.

Screw that insane headmaster.

With her decision made, she ran into the house, grabbed the car keys before Vernon could do anything, grabbed the abomination, and sped off with the car.

...

They arrived at a square and unwelcoming building, surrounded by high railings. It was kind of familiar, yet Harry couldn't place it where he had seen it before. It looked rather run-down and Harry suddenly felt this would be a grim place in which to grow up.

He looked at the name on the gate and suddenly his heart sank. There, stuck right onto the middle of the gate was a name.

**_WOOL'S ORPHANAGE_**

He barely had time to even register anything else as Petunia, his not-so-loving aunt, dropped him right in front of the gate. She glared at Harry and then spat right on the ground next to Harry's head.

Harry sneered, or as much as a one-year old could sneer and said, "We shall meet again." He enjoyed her shocked look as he slowly drifted into an uneasy sleep, it would be better if the matrons found him sleeping.

He dreamed of different Petunias, running about hills made of lemon-drops and dressed in pyjamas.

...

Ms. Samantha Cole was a gentle woman, unlike her grandmother who had also once been the head matron of the orphanage, and she prided herself on that. Whereas most children had always shied away from her grandmother (except that Riddle boy, he somehow frightened everyone into submission. He was a story told to the children in the orphanage when they refused to leave. When Riddle grew up, he had murdered everyone in the orphanage, including Mrs. Cole. No one really knew how, but he somehow did. Anyhow, it was told to the children that Riddle, if he was still alive, would come and kill them in the night if they didn't go to sleep. Almost everyone went to sleep after that.), they now came mostly to her with their concerns and fears.

She was also the head matron of Wool's Orphanage. Therefore, when she witnessed a lady, still in her pyjamas, depositing a baby in front of the gates, she called Poppy, another matron to bring the baby in.

They were surprised to find that the baby was sleeping contentedly, smiling in his sleep. Probably not aware that his family had just left him in an orphanage.

Samantha gestured Poppy to deposit the baby into the crib so they could both look at him properly.

The boy was pretty and they both had no doubt that he would be a heart throb when he grew up. His hair was silky and jet black. There wasn't much baby fat left on his face and they could both see the beginnings of the handsome aristocratic look. There was a thin lightning bolt scar on the head but neither commented on it, as they both knew the other had seen it.

The cloth his blanket was made off, looked expensive, and of very good quality. There were three words sown into the material, it read _Harry James Potter_.

The two matrons looked at each other.

"The name suits him," Samantha said. Poppy nodded along.

"He seems of noble blood," The matron said to her boss, "His parents must be dead. The woman outside obviously wasn't his mother. She wouldn't have just left him there."

Samantha nodded and looked down at the baby once more.

"Put him in room 27, it's the last room available," She said with a grim tone. Poppy's eyes widened.

"But that was Tom Ri-"

"Yes, it was his room, but where else do you want to put him?" She asked with a sigh.

"Fine, I'll put him there," Poppy muttered.

Oblivious to the rest of the world, Harry slept on.

...

**WOOL'S ORPHANAGE 1988 - SEVEN YEARS LATER**

Harry smiled as he shook the official looking man's hand. It was the headmaster of Eton, the most prestigious school in the world and Harry had just been admitted into it. He could see Ms. Cole and Poppy grinning proudly from the doorway. Harry shot them a small smile, which didn't happen very often as Harry had built his occlumency walls already and they often made a person less prone to emotional events. They looked shocked for a moment as Harry usually barely aknoledged them.

The headmaster grinned at the tall boy and Harry smirked back.

"It will be an honour to have you in our school for your final year of schooling." The headmaster said. Harry nodded, a thin smile stretching across his lips.

This time around, things had been rather different. This time around, he was _The Genius. _Well, that was what the papers called him. He had been 'discovered' as a genius child when he was six and started his first day of school.

_Flash back_

_ St George's public school-1986_

_Harry sat down gracefully in a chair right at the back of the room. The teacher frowned as Harry pulled a book called An Advanced Guide to Chemistry and started reading it, waiting for the class to start. _

_However the students hadn't all come yet so the teacher strolled over to Harry who chose to ignore him and continued reading, sometimes improving some formulas with his pencil.  
_

_Above him the teacher stared as Harry pulled out a journal and started writing his own formula related to the subject which he had been reading about. _

_"What's your name?" The teacher demanded softly. Harry didn't stop writing but raised his head slightly, "I thought not saying one's name first was bad manners," He said nonchalantly. _

_The teacher frowned but searched Harry for the nametag they had been give at the entrance. _

_"Harry, my name is Mr Paver." The man said pulling out his hand. Harry put the pencil down, raised his head and shook the man's hand. _

_"Pleased to meet you, my name is Harry Potter," He said in his best politician voice, which was rather good as during the war he had been a bit of a politician. The man smiled and slowly sat down next to Harry. He gently pulled the notebook from Harry's hand and flicked through it. Harry didn't stop him, wondering what the man was going to do. His plan had been after all just to study until he turned 11 and then go to Hogwarts. _

_Mr Paver stared in amazement at all the different formulas, ideas and theories in the book. He shut the notebook with a small snap and turned to look at Harry.  
_

_"Did you write all that?"_

_Harry nodded slowly. The man raised an eyebrow in suspicion and walked over to the board where he wrote a complicated formula. Some parents who had come in with their children turned to look at what the teacher was doing. _

_Once he finished the formula he turned to Harry. "I am a professor in Chemistry and Maths, this is one of the problems I still haven't been able to solve. Can you solve it?"  
_

_Harry raised an eyebrow. How often was it that you met a teacher who challenged you to solve a mathematical/chemistry problem several scientists had been trying to solve for ages. _

_Harry hesitated. If he solved it now, and he was pretty sure that he could, he would probably be transferred into a school for the gifted and had an IQ done. He would become famous in the muggle world as well. Then again, that was an easy way to get into the high social circles early in his life before he had the right to claim his Lordship. He could even try to become a professor before he came to Hogwarts. Now that would be _amazing_._

_Slowly, he took the chalk from the teachers open hand and turned to the board. Suddenly aware that most parents were staring at his back. _

_And so he began solving the problem. _

_A few minutes later (after all he **had** to make it believable) he finally finished. The teacher took the chalk with shock written clearly on his face. _

_End Flashback. _

And so Harry was transferred into a school for the gifted. He finished primary school in two years. That had gotten the attention of Eton and now they were offering him a scholarship there.

Harry of course accepted the offer and soon he was packing to go to a boarding school for the last two years of schooling. (He had skipped a lot of grades in Eton)

And so with 10 years old, Harry finished school at Eton.

And 23 famous Universities around the world wanted him. Of course, everyone had heard about the _Wunderkind _from Britain.

The graduation party was boring as there were very long speeches about how wonderful school had been at Eton.

"...Harry Potter." His name spoken aloud by the headmaster of the school brought him out of his reverie. It was his turn for his speech. He stood up gracefully and walked slowly to the podium.

"I would like to thank all of you," Harry said with a smile as he spotted Justin Timberlake, one of his dorm-mates in the crowd, "For all the support you have given me. Most of all I would like to thank Headmaster Sir William Anderson for giving me a chance at Eton. I would also like to thank my deceased parents who have somehow given me strength to carry on. Ah, yes, I have reached my decision about University. I took Cambridge's offer... Thank you so much."

Harry smiled as he walked back to his seat as the crowd clapped and cheered. He noticed the headmaster of Cambridge University being congratulated by several other people.

Harry inwardly rolled his eyes.

...

Within the year of his graduation he finished University with high scores. He wrote some books about his theories which became best-sellers in the science world and he soon became a professor in Chemistry and Mathematics in Cambridge.

All before he turned 11.

Life was good.

* * *

**YAAAAY! Another chapter done. I hope you enjoyed it. **

**I have already planned out the next two chapters but I haven't written them yet. So the next chapter will be done in about 1-2 weeks. **

**Anyhow, please review. I would love to hear what you have to say about my story. :D**

**Oh yes, and Im sorry about the Justin Timberlake thing... I'm sorry but I just _had _to include him... :D**


	4. The Debate

**Well, another chapter done. I hope you enjoy it. I might not write another for another week as I have a lot of school work.  
**

**Disclaimer: i have never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter, and I will never own Harry Potter (but we can all dream, eh?)**

* * *

Albus Dumbledore wasn't usually that easily surprised, but he was when one morning, while he was eating his breakfast with the other teachers who stayed at Hogwarts in the summer, when an owl suddenly swept through the small opening at the top of the great-hall made for the owls delivering post.

He gazed at the midnight blue owl for a few seconds, trying to see with his mage-sight if there were any curses or hexes on the owl or the letter that was clutched between his claws. Albus smiled gently at the owl as he finally made sure that there was nothing dangerous about the whole situation.

The owl was well-groomed. Probably the sign of a pure-blood family.

He slowly broke the seal which he had not recognized and his smile widened as he read it. Apparently, there was going to be a debate about education in Britain in London later that day and the debate was so important that only the prime-minister and some top professors were allowed there.

The muggle prime minister had invited him personally. Frowning, Albus slowly rose his eyes to meet the owl's own which were staring owlishly back at him. Why would the muggle Prime-Minister have such a well groomed owl?

Then shrugging, he returned to his meal, silently promising that he would be in London later.

...

When Albus arrived at the parliament, it was raining heavily, making London look rather dull and uninteresting, so it was a sharp contrast to Albus' long snow-white beard and twinkling eyes. He had of course put on a tailored black muggle suit as the debate was going to be in muggle London.

When he entered the room in which the debate was going to take place, he noticed he was one of the last to enter. The doors were shut minutes later.

The debate itself was quite boring and Albus found himself almost dosing off every once in a while, but he couldn't with the power in the room. He had noticed it the moment he had entered, like a huge wave from the sea washing over him, the pure magical power seemed to overwhelm him.

Usually Albus was able to pin-point a wizard in a large crowd of muggles but this was totally different. The power seemed to flow lazily around the room, not exactly concentrating in one spot like it should have. Whoever this man was with that amount of power, Albus sincerely hoped was on the light side.

"...And now break..." Albus snapped out of his daze as he heard the judge proclaim that there was going to be a break. Grimacing inwardly at his inattention, Albus slowly shuffled out of the room with all of the other old professors and into another where drinks and small finger-sandwitches were being distributed.

That was when he noticed a boy, looking about 13 due to his height. He was tall for his age. Albus after having worked with children for so long knew almost instinctively how old he was. The boy was also handsome, with aristocratic looks which looked like they belonged in the Black family. His hair was black and fell in waves down to the middle of his neck. Making him look like a pure-blood heir. He had high cheekbones and flawless ivory skin. And then Albus saw the eyes. They were the most brilliant emerald green eyes he had ever seen. Full of life and intelligence and yet, there was something behind that façade, there was some sort of pain boiling at the very centre of his being and Albus drew in a sharp breath.

Those were the eyes of someone who had survived a harsh war, those eyes did not belong on a child's face.

Albus then noticed that the boy was talking rapidly, eyes sparkling, with the headmaster of the University of Cambridge who was surprisingly nodding equally enthusiastically.

Albus then turned to the nearest old man, who just happened to be the headmaster of Oxford.

"Ah, headmaster, it's a pleasure to meet you again!" Said the headmaster of Oxford, looking rather silly with his red chubby face and curly moustache. Albus simply smiled and shook the man's hand.

"Yes, it has been a long time since we last spoke, has it not?" Albus answered politely. The man shook his hand enthusiastically.

"May I ask, my dear man, who that chap is over there?" Albus said with curiosity. The headmaster of Oxford glanced in the direction Albus had waved his hand at. His smile widened, only then to sadden slightly.

"That, my dear man, is _The Genius. _Have you not read the newspapers?" The man asked then continued, not really waiting for a response, "Yes, I heard form one of his teachers (who happens to be a chemistry professor in his free time) that he solved a mathematical/chemical problem scientists have been trying to solve for years, and he did so in less than 15 minutes. The boy was then enrolled into a primary school for gifted young children."

Albus nodded to show that he understood. He was about to say something back when the man continued. It seemed that there was more to this story.

"Anyway, as he finished his primary school, he was invited to Eton on a scholarship (ah, yes, did I tell you he is an orphan?) He finished the school there when he turned ten. Later he was invited to 23 Universities around the world. He chose to go to Cambridge. He finished University there in less than a year and now is a professor at said college. You should read his books, they are simply amazing. He also writes articles for several newspapers about the last politics. That boy is a true prodigy. I reckon it's only time before Her Majesty the Queen gives him the medal of honour and knights him, I mean he _has _done several scientific discoveries in England which now make it one of the leading countries in science..." The man trailed off as another well-known professor engaged him in a conversation about the newest politics.

Albus was engaged in conversations several times but most people eventually wandered off, classifying him as a very unsociable person which was probably due to the fact that Albus had been staring at the genius boy with curiosity. The boy in question weaved through the crowd like a very experienced politician, talking, and exchanging pleasantries with people as he went.

"A damn genius, that boy." Albus' head spun to meet the headmaster of Eton. Quickly glancing at the boy once more (he was now talking rather happily with the Prime Minister. Albus shuddered at that thought, to have so much power so young. It reminded him of another genius boy he had met a rough sixty years ago.), he turned to the other man.

"I met him, when he was just eight. You should have seen him, then. Not half as stunning as now of course, but he still made quite an impression on me in a matter of minutes. A month later, I invited him to Eton, as I heard only then that he had finished primary already."

Albus smilied slightly at the man, and said, "You should be proud that he finished your school."

The other man nodded once and grinned suddenly, "Ah, yes, he was a rather brilliant student. He was awarded head boy in several months after staying there. I heard he has a sad story, orphan. His parents died in a car crash. Both aristocrats, and as the boy is the last of the line... He will inherit the lordship when he turns 18. That boy will have a considerable amount of power." The man said as they both gazed at the boy with thoughtful looks on their faces.

"Ah! Headmaster, it's a pleasure to see you again!" They both looked down, (the headmaster of Eton with a fond smile on his lips and Albus with a thoughtful expression) to see the tall boy.

"Ah, Harry, my dear boy, how is Cambridge?" Said the headmaster. Albus blinked at the mention of the familiar name, and he leaned down slightly to look at the boy and he subtly reached out with his magic to see if the boy was a muggle. There was no magic at all. Not a single bit, well, either that or the boy was cloaking his magic, but to do that one had to be exceptionally powerful and in very good control of one's power.

Albus smiled easily at the boy, his worries erased. The boy didn't even wear the signature Potter glasses.

...

Harry smirked as he made his way back to the orphanage, first taking the tube and then a taxi. Dumbledore just didn't seem to be able to try to _not _poke into another persons life. Yes, Dumbledore was a nice wizard and in a way Harry's grandfather, but sometimes the meddlesome old goat was slightly too nosy.

The man had even tried to touch his magic in the break. Usually while not having direct contact with another wizard Harry let his magic flow around free, but as a wizard engaged him in a conversation he instantly pulled his magic back making it look like he was a muggle, or a squib at best.

It was better to be underestimated than to be predictable.

Harry smirked once more as he thought of Dumbledore and Hogwarts. He would finally be reunited with his home. Hogwarts had been destroyed early in the war and by the time Harry 'died' it was just a pile of stones and ashes.

It wasn't like he didn't like the orphanage, quite the opposite really. It was a warm place, quite unlike the orphanage he had seen in Dumbledore's memories and full of happy children.

Of course, they mostly kept away from Harry, knowing it was better not to interrupt a scientist in his studies. He could have gotten the quarters he had been offered at Cambridge but Harry wanted to be closer to London so that he could slip into Diagon Alley whenever he wished it. Of course, he still had to wake up at five thirty each morning to get to Cambridge and prepare his classes, but that wasn't such a big sacrifice, he had always been an early riser anyway.

As he reached the orphanage, his smirk fell off his face and an emotionless mask appeared in it's place. He didn't want his smirk to been seen and interpreted wrongly as he had already been told by Justin (his roommate at Eton) that his smirk looked rather evil.

He opened the door silently and hung up his wet coat. Once that was done, he loosened the tie around his neck and made his way upstairs, his leather shoes making silent thumps as he went.

He encountered a couple of small children on his way to his room (# 27, which had once been Riddle's room) who ran off almost instantly as they saw the famous genius child.

It wasn't like the other children there were afraid of him, no quite the opposite, they seemed to think he was above them just because he was famous. Well, that was most of the younger children. The one's his age or older were friendly with him and enjoyed the intelligent conversations Harry had with them.

As Harry sat down on his bed he smiled once more (now in the privacy of his room) and picked up a book about science in the renaissance.

...

Harry was once more in his room, just days later when and owl flew into his room through the open window.

The room was messy, covered with small presents from the fellow orphans in the orphanage, mostly books. They even made him a large poster saying _Happy 11 birthday!_

He grinned as the owl flew once around the room and then settled down onto his knee. It then extended its foot. Harry slowly pulled off the envelope and examined it.

Where last time it had said:

_Harry Potter,_

_Dursley House, _

_Cupboard under the stairs._

It now said:

_Harry Potter_

_Wool's Orphanage, London, _

_room 27_

Someone was bound to notice that his address was at an orphanage and would come to pick him up.

He opened the seal with a grin and read through the letter. If reading the letter the first time was exciting then this was amazing.

It read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

_ Dear Mr. Potter, _

_ We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. _  
_ Term begins on September 1. As we have been made aware that you are currently in a muggle (non-magical folk) orphanage we shall send someone to go with you to get your supplies. __They shall come sometime tomorrow. _

_ Yours sincerely, _

_ Minerva McGonagall _  
_ Deputy Headmistress _

_ The second page with requirements says: _

_ HOGWARTS SCHOOL _  
_ of WHICHCRAFT and WIZARDRY _

_ UNIFORM _  
_ First-year students will require: _  
_ sets of plain work robes (black) _  
_ plain pointed hat (black) for day wear _  
_ pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) _  
_ winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings) _  
_ Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags. _

_ COURSE BOOKS _  
_ All students should have a copy of each of the following: _

_ The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) _  
_ by Miranda Goshawk _

_ A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot _

_ Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling _

_ A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch _

_ One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi _  
_ by Phyllida Spore _

_ Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger _

_ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them _  
_ by Newt Scamander _

_ The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection _  
_ by Quentin Trimble _

_ OTHER EQUIPMENT _

_ 1 wand _  
_ 1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) _  
_ 1 set glass or crystal phials _  
_ 1 telescope _  
_ 1 set brass scales _

_ Students may also bring and owl OR a cat OR a toad. _

_ PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

Harry grinned to himself. So they were going to send someone to go with him to Diagon Alley. And knowing Dumbledore the man was going to come himself to examine the boy-who-lived.

...

And so it was like that, that Harry sat on his bed in his room reading the play, Hamlet, by Shakespeare, waiting for Dumbledore to come. The play was actually rather interesting as in his past life he had read a lot of books but none for pleasure, most were for survival.

It was nearing noon when there was a knock on the door and Ms Cole came in, smiling at Harry who nodded back one in acknoledgement. As she stepped aside, Albus Dumbledore stepped through the doorstep. He gazed around the room and then his eyes zeroed on Harry, piercing him with that gaze. Harry saw his eyes twinkle and Harry stood up respectfully and nodded once to the other powerful wizard.

Harry didn't even bother concealing his magic now as Dumbledore reached out with his own and his eyes seemed to widen slightly. This all happened in a few seconds and Ms Cole didn't even bat an eyelash.

"Er... I'll just leave you two to it," She said and then quickly shut the door behind her.

There was a moments silence where both wizards just stared at each other, assesing their weaknesses and trying to understand the other.

"My name is-" Dumbledore didn't even have the chance to finish his sentence as a younger boy (carrying a textbook) from the orphanage slammed the door open and ran to Harry, not noticing the other man in the room.

"Harry! Help me! How do you answer this question?" He said in a whiny voice. Harry smiled apologeticaly at Dumbledore before turning to the boy, Jake, and quickly explained the theory. The boy beamed at Harry and ran out of the room once more, shutting it behind him loudly, not even noticing Dumbledore.

Dumbledore chuckled, his eyes twinkling.

"As I was saying, my name is Albus Dumbledore, I am the headmaster of Hogwarts," He said politely extending a hand. Harry took it in his own and firmly shook it.

"Pleased to meet you, my name is Harry Potter."

Dumbledore leaned back and smiled at Harry.

"I should have known that you were Harry Potter when I saw you at the debate," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, you should have, as I in turn, seem to remember you." Dumbledores eyes widened as he looked at Harry.

"You were a year old, when I last saw you," he started gently, "You turned my beard-"

Harry interrupted him, grinning, "bright, bright, orange. And then charmed it to hit your face every once and again."

"Yes, yes, you seem to remember quite a bit..." He said with a concerned look on his face. Harry smiled grimly.

"Yes, I remember _that _as well." Harry said with a frown. Dumbledore smiled sadly at Harry.

"Well, I suppose you know of magic, then?" Harry nodded.

"Yes, I remember everything my parents talked about while I was awake. I have been trying to find Diagon Alley for a couple of years now, but I am afraid the wizarding community is rather good at hiding."

Dumbledore nodded once, smiling brightly, and suddenly his eyes had that twinkle in them again.

"Well then, let us be off!"

...

It had been a rather long day, as Harry had to keep up his act in front of Dumbledore the whole time and the old coot was rather perceptive. The last stop: Ollivanders.

Harry was ushered in by a smiling Dumbledore. They stood silently together for a few minutes, the sound of the bell ringing long gone by now, when suddenly Ollivander jumped out of the shadows.

Harry had been expecting that but jumped nevertheless and he felt Dumbledore stiffen slightly.

"Ah, I was expecting you Mr Potter," he turned sharply to Dumbledore, "Maple 11 1/2 inches, phoenix feather, that was a very powerful wand. Now that you have the wand of death, do not forget about your first one."

Dumbledore shuffled from one foot onto the other. Harry raised an eyebrow. It sounded like Ollivander was reprimanding a small child. Just how old was Ollivander?

"Ah, well, try this wand..."

And so it went, Ollivander would pick out a wand, Harry would take it, only for it to be taken out of his hand seconds later. Harry was then given his old wand. He felt warmth flow through his body, but it wasn't quite as powerful as the first time. Ollivander stared at him for a moment then took the wand back.

"Close, Mr Potter, very close..." He trailed off and they continued what they had been doing earlier. Eventually, the stack of boxes on the counter became to big from all the wands Harry had tested in the wand shop. Ollivander frowned.

"Well, it seems, Mr Potter, that I only have one single wand left for you to try."

He then strode to the showcase and grabbed the single wand which was lying on the cushion. Slowly, and almost reverently, he passed the wand to Harry who took it in his right hand, hesitating slightly.

He certainly wasn't prepared for the burst of silver and gold sparks that erupted out of his wand, or the sudden power coursing through his body. There was a burst of wind, and the cloak (which he had bought earlier that day) flapped at his heels.

Then slowly the power died down and Harry stared down at the wand in wonder. It was still humming with power.

"Interesting..." Said Ollivander, "That wand, my dear boy, was made by my grandfather, it has the core of a feather of a royal phoenix and a single hair from a thesteral. The pure and light, and the darkest of the dark. That wand is what you can call completely neutral."

Harry turned his head slightly and met the old wizard's eyes and said, "My opinion is that a wand cannot be neither dark nor light, it is the purpose of the caster that makes it so," Harry said with a thoughtful expression. Dumbledore put a hand on his shoulder which Harry didn't bother to shake off, after a day of spending together they were much closer, to the point where Dumbledore allowed Harry to call him Albus in private.

"Wise words, Harry, wise words indeed,"

* * *

**Well, pfew, another chapter done. Please tell me what you think of it. **

**:D**


	5. You smile, you smile yet youre a villain

**Well, another chapter done! This one is much longer than my other chapters...  
**

**well, I hope you enjoy reading it. **

**Disclaimer: I have never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter and I probably never will own Harry Potter. **

**Please leave a review, it's great motivation.**

* * *

Harry and Dumbledore walked down Diagon Alley silently, each thinking about what they had just learned from Ollivander. To an outsider they were quite a peculiar pair, Dumbledore was dressed in a bright yellow robe with small bumblebees flying about, he had a matching hat on and bright green pointy shoes. This all clashed terribly and Harry had to concentrate on Dumbledore's face whenever he talked with him. Harry too was dressed in a robe, having changed earlier in the robe shop.

His, however was an expensive looking robe, made out of the finest materials. It looked black but whenever the sun struck it one could see some tingles of red in it. Behind them, a brand new trunk was floating in the air, as Dumbledore had charmed it so that Harry didn't have to carry it.

As they passed the owl shop on the way to the Leaky Cauldron, Harry stared at the white owl in the display window, remembering that Hedwig was still there.

Yes, he could buy her once more, but the owl was too distinctive and it would hurt to even look at her everyday. And as he stared at the owl, Harry felt his heart clench with pain and he tore his eyes away from the shop.

No, he couldn't buy her, it would bring back to many hurtful memories.

Dumbledore seemed to have noticed what Harry had been looking at and he smiled, "Should we buy an owl?"

Harry shook his head quickly, perhaps too quickly, "No, thank you, Albus. But I am afraid I don't have anyone to write to anyway." He said this with a sad smile, as he gazed into the distance.

Dumbledore frowned, seeing the genuine sadness on the boy's face. He was still frowning as he held the door for Harry to step through in the Leaky Cauldron. Harry shot him a smile and a soft thank you.

"Now, Harry, I believe we haven't eaten yet... Would you mind joining me?" Dumbledore said with a grin as he gestured to a table. They sat down and Dumbledore picked up his menu, he gestured for Harry to do the same. Harry picked up his menu, remembering that he couldn't possibly know how anything worked in the wizarding world.

"Shepherd's pie, and pumpkin juice, please." Dumbledore stated, quietly but clearly. Seconds later, the plate appeared in front of him. Harry made a show of looking surprised, his eyes blinking quicker than normal and his mouth hanging open. Dumbledore chuckled and his eyes twinkled at the reaction. Harry grinned back suddenly and said the same thing as Dumbledore had.

They ate their meal quickly, exchanging pleasantries every now and then. When they were finished, and both of them had put their napkins to the side and leaned back in contentment, Albus' expression turned serious.

"Harry, my dear boy, there are several things I need to discuss with you..." He trailed off, and stroked his beard and then with his other hand put up several silencing charms and repelling wards. Harry gazed at the man with new respect, he had also mastered wandless magic at some point in the past/future, but right now his magical core was untrained so while he had the knowledge, he still had to excercise his magical core a little for the magic to flow freely to his hands.

Harry felt the magic swoop down on him, and he shuddered in delight. He was magic sensetive, meaning he could feel magic around him and it always felt wonderful to feel it rushing around him.

Harry shook his head mentally, to clear his thoughts and turned his head slightly to look at the old wizard who looked rather grave and old at that very moment. Frowning, Harry gave him his full attention, was the man about to tell him the prophecy, or perhaps even about the Horcruxes?

"There was a boy, once many, many years ago, about sixty I believe," Dumbledore started, his eyes never leaving Harry's who strengthened his mind shields, "his name was Tom Riddle."

Harry gave a nod to show that he understood.

"Yes, there are several stories about him circulating around the orphanage, he was quite the unfriendly fellow, from what I heard," Harry said slowly. Dumbledore nodded once.

"Yes, but unfriendly would be underestimating it a little bit. Anyhow, he was also a wizard (Harry made a show of widening his eyes in surprise) and he was 11 when his Hogwarts letter came. I, at that time was the professor of Transfiguration, one of the most complex branches of magic), and the deputy headmaster so I was tasked with escorting him around Diagon Alley. He refused to be escorted anywhere, preferring to do things on his own so I left him, slightly disturbed by him.

When he came to Hogwarts, and was sorted into Slytherin, a house at Hogwarts which houses the most ambitious and sly. He quickly gained the approval of the staff and the students. Almost everyone liked him. I however, was wary of him. Tom had always displayed an amazing amount of power and control. He was always so friendly and charismatic to almost everyone," Dumbledore said with a small frown. Harry tapped his chin, as if thinking about the things Dumbledore was telling him.

"You smile, you smile, yet you're a villain," Harry quoted Hamlet from Shakespeare. Dumbledore nodded solemnly.

"To cut the story short, when he graduated from Hogwarts he had followers who were so devoted to him, they would kill in his name, and so they did. This man, Tom Riddle, became Lord Voldemort. The next Dark Lord, the worst and deadliest the world has seen since Salazar Slytherin." The old wizard took a steadying breath, "He is the man-no-monster, who killed your parents."

Harry stared at Dumbledore for a long moment. Of course he had already known that, but hearing it come from Dumbledore so bluntly was heart-wrenching. His eyes watered slightly, this part not even being in the act.

"I suppose James and Lily talked about the prophecy in front of you?" Dumbledore asked. And Harry stared at him with wide eyes, since when had Dumbledore become so open? Maybe it was due to the fact that he saw Harry was very mature for his age. But then slowly, Harry nodded.

"Yes, my parents muttered something about a prophecy every now and then," Harry said. Dumbledore nodded solemnly.

"It goes as follows: "_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..._"" Dumbledore finished with a sad smile. He laid a hand upon Harry's lower arm as if apologizing for the responsibility that had been laid upon Harry's shoulders.

Harry sat there in his chair, with dumb shock. He hadn't heard that in several years, and the reminder that he still had to defeat one of the greatest wizards alive was a strong blow to him. Slowly he shook his head, to clear the thoughts running about. Slowly he composed himself, straightening his back and looking Dumbledore straight in the eyes. Dumbledore gave him all the time he needed to compose himself.

"So that means I have to defeat him, or he defeats me?" Harry asked, his voice shaking slightly as he stared up at those eyes. There was small hint of pride in those old eyes which was directed at Harry for him taking it so well. Dumbledore nodded once.

"Something along those lines..." The man trailed off with a sad smile.

"And I suppose the scar marks me as his equal?" Harry asked, this time feeling much stronger. Dumbledore nodded once more and his hand moved to Harry's shoulder.

"So this means that Voldemort can and shall come back?" One more nod. Harry took a deep breath and slowly let a small smile creep onto his face.

Dumbledore looked puzzled at that expression. He had probably been expecting tears and sobs.

"Well, I suppose that he can't be defeated by chemicals?"

...

The rest of the summer went by quickly.

Harry had already put his affairs in order and already told the headmaster of Cambridge that he was going to be travelling for seven years but that he would be returning every now and then to give a lecture. The headmaster had been sad to see his most brilliant pupil leave him but agreed with Harry that the boy had to see the world a little.

So the rest of the free time he had, he spent revising his first year books. Trying to remember the theories he had learnt so long ago and most importantly, all the things that he wasn't supposed to know yet.

He spent most of his time now cooped up in his room, studying, sometimes skipping meals. So by the end of the summer, the matrons had started to bring food up to his room to watch him eat, claiming that he was already too skinny.

And so the 1st of September drew close and Harry said his goodbyes to all the children and matrons. He then took a bus to Kings Cross and was there soon enough. He got onto platform 9 3/4 without any problems, well except the fact that the trunk was very heavy, even with all the lightening charms on it. Harry supposed it was because of the small library of books already forming in one of the enlarged compartments.

The platform was crowded with people, it always was. Families were saying goodbyes to each other, children were looking for their pets and little brothers and sisters were complaining to their parents about why couldn't they go to Hogwarts as well.

Snorting in amusement when he saw an owl trying to escape from his master, Harry ducked into the train, dragging his trunk behind him.

He chose one of the last compartments, not the last, as many people tended to go there. Another person seemed to have had a similar idea, because as he entered the compartment, he saw a man dozing in the darkened corner.

Raising an eyebrow, Harry levitated his trunk to the rack with a silent _Wengardium Leviosa _so he didn't wake up the man who was dozing. Sitting down, Harry pulled out the book which had been put into his enlarged pockets of his robes, and started reading just as the train jerked into motion.

It was one about advanced potions and how they could be used to understand other branches in potions. He was so into his book he almost missed it when the man shifted slightly (probably in his sleep) and the hood fell away slightly.

Harry shot a glance at him, and froze slightly.

It was Snape.

He could tell by the single lock of greasy hair he could now see that it was Snape. He was probably the teacher who had to watch over the train that summer.

The man had sacrificed so much, his whole life had been devoted to the war, he had become a spy for the Order of the Phoenix risking his own life in the process. Meanwhile, Harry hadn't even managed to defeat Voldemort.

Harry continued staring at the brave man who had in his own way been a Gryffindor in Slytherin skin. Hell, Harry admired him so much for his bravery he even named one of his sons after him. Albus Severus though, had been killed when he was two when Death-Eaters had raided their home while Harry was away on auror duties.

They had killed his whole family, James, Lily, Albus and Ginny.

The man had been brave as hell-

"Are you going to continue staring at me like that, or are you going to stay there staring at me?" Harry was pulled out of his memories by an irate Snape who had uncurled himself and was now sitting straight-backed in his seat, staring at Harry, waiting for his answer.

Harry blushed slightly.

"Sorry, sir, I thought you were asleep, I just saw your picture in _An Encyclopedia of Potions and their pictures. _You created several potions I found simply amazing."

Harry said with a small smile. Snape simply raised an eyebrow.

"And how exactly did you find a copy of that book, might I ask? It is restricted for those who have a mastery in the subject."

Harry tapped his chin and smiled once more, "I do have a mastery," Seeing Snape's disbelieving expression he pulled out his ID card which allowed him to get into basically any base that had something related to Chemistry. His clearance number was 9, the highest anybody could get. So high up in fact, that his name wasn't on his ID card, as his name now was top-secret. He passed the card to Snape who took it with a raised eyebrow.

The potions master gazed at it with a disbelieving expression and flicked it back to Harry.

"Return that to your father, boy, it's a dangerous card to have lying about." Obviously, the man still didn't believe him. Harry flushed slightly in anger and pulled out his notebook and a pen from his enlarged pocket.

"I have noticed, over the years of studying Chemistry, physics and biology that they are frighteningly similar to potions. The one thing that potions don't seem to have is a periodic system, which chemistry does.

I tried to produce the same thing for potions ingredients but I have found it increasingly difficult," Here he paused and opened his notebook to a specific page. He then held out the notebook for Snape to look at.

It was true, he _had _actually had the idea of making a periodic system for potions, of course, many other potion masters had tried to do the same thing as he was trying but had been less successful. Harry of course had been almost half way there with the potions ingredients when he struck a difficulty. Snape would be able to help there. He _was _after all one of the most famous potions masters in the world. And he, Harry, was one of the most famous scientists in the world. What better combination was there?

Together, they could once and for all find a periodic system for potions.

Snape grabbed the notebook and started reading. After a few moments, he flipped to the very front page and started reading everything Harry had written.

Noticing, Snape was going to take some time to read through the whole thing he opened the book he had been reading once more and resumed reading.

It was almost two hours later when Snape finally shut the notebook and placed it on the table between them. He then spent the next half hour staring at Harry intently. Harry didn't even waver and kept reading. He was actually kind of surprised that Snape hadn't recognized him yet. Then again, this time around, Harry looked more like a Black and Evans than Potter.

"What is your name?" Snape finally asked, seemingly not able to hold his curiosity inside him anymore. Harry smirked and put the book on his lap.

"Harry Potter."

There was a stunned silence when neither said anything, Snape just stared at Harry and Harry stared back. They were interrupted from their staring contest when the door slammed open and Percy Weasley barged in.

"Professor! Come quick! A seventh year Ravenclaw cursed a first year!"

He then disappeared down the hall. Snape stood and walked to the compartment door. As he was reaching for the door handle he turned his head slightly.

"This conversation is not finished yet." And then with a dramatic billow of his robes he left the compartment. Harry rolled his eyes at the dramatics and was about to return to his book when the door was thrown open once more.

And suddenly Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom were there.

Harry stared at them for a few moments, memories of them dying flashing through his mind, but then composed himself.

"Hello!" Hermione said with a smile, "We are looking for Neville's toad here!" She gestured to Neville who smiled weakly. Ron just shrugged apologetically as if saying he didn't really mean to barge into his compartment like that. Harry grinned back at her and pulled out his wand.

"Just summon him, _accio Neville's toad."_ He said, waving his wand in a well practiced motion. Hermione stared dubiously as him and when nothing happened she frowned at him, "That doesn't seem to be a real spell..." She was cut off as suddenly a small blur suddenly flew through the compartment and fell down on Harry's hand who grinned.

"Trevor!" Neville said excited. He grabbed the toad and threw him in a cage. Harry rushed a hand through his hair out of habit but knew it had been a mistake because almost instantly all three pairs of eyes flew to his forehead.

Hermione's eyes then flew to the ID card still lying on the table.

All three pairs of eyes widened as one.

"Holy Cricket! You're _The Genius!_" She exclaimed happily. Neville and Ron seemed confused, as they were both purebloods and didn't read any muggle newspapers.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about, Hermione? That's The-Boy-Who-Lived!" Ron exclaimed. Neville just stared at him.

"I read all about you!" Hermione exclaimed and Harry had to remind himself that this was the old Hermione, the one that was obsessed with books and authority figures.

She was then about to say something when Snape appeared at the doorway of the compartments. Scaring the shit out of the three soon to be Gryffindors.

"Get out." The two words seemed to shock them back into reality because they all scrambled back. Snape then walked gracefully to his seat and sat down. Then with a wave of his wand, the door shut itself.

They then spent the rest of their ride talking about _their _new project.

...

When the train finally arrived at Hogsmade station, Snape instantly stood up and swooped out of the compartment, once more schooling his features to look intimidating.

Harry snorted in amusement at the man's antics and stepped out of the compartment before the hallway got to crowded to even breathe. He quickly got out of the train and instantly heard the familiar cry of "Firs' years over 'ere, firs' years over 'ere!"

Harry instantly took off in that direction, a happy smile on his face. Hagrid had been killed when Harry was about thirty-five when the Death-Eaters scoured the Forbidden Forest, looking for any survivals. Hagrid had put up a fight. The amount of Death-Eaters that had been killed by him was amazing.

Hagrid had always been a sort of peace-keeper, but after some time, stunning Death-Eaters had been proven useless as in a battle another Death-Eater would just enervate his mate.

And so, even the most innocent and strict of the peace-keepers had to kill as well.

Two other first-years were already standing next to Hagrid looking scared, and Harry suddenly vaguely remembered their names and the houses they would be sorted in.

Terry Boot and Lisa Turpin would soon become Ravenclaws in less than half an hour.

Once the first years were all secured into boats. In total there were only ten boats with four people inside each one and Harry smiled sadly. It seemed that after each war, the largest part of the population usually consisted of elderly people as most of the younger generations had taken part in the war. This resulted in a smaller amount of young people, namely, children of Harry's age.

And thus, through the inbreeding in the wizarding world, the population of wizards in Britain would diminish.

Shaking his head, to clear all those annoyingly true thoughts, Harry turned to look at all the people who had been put into a boat with him. There were two girls, Susan Bones, a small brunette with chocolate eyes and very cute freckles, and Lisa Turpin, a stunning girl with black hair and brilliant blue eyes. Then there was Draco Malfoy, the blonde looking aristocrat with the recognizable Malfoy features with a hint of Black somewhere there. Harry realized with a jolt that Draco was related to him through their great-grand father. So Draco was something like a third or fourth cousin.

With that new piece of information, he felt confident for some reason.

"So, what are you guys called?" Asked Lisa Turpin with a grin. Harry suddenly remembered that he was a half-blood so he probably picked up some of his slang from the muggles. Harry noticed Malfoy stiffen next to him, probably because the boy had been raised with the pureblood customs but he took it in stride.

"Draco Malfoy, pleased to meet you," He raised her hand to his lips and gently brushed her lips against his hand. Susan Bones seemed totally unfazed by that as she raised her own hand while Lisa turned bright red. LIsa muttered her name.

"Susan Bones, but of course, you already know that," Said Bones. Harry smiled slightly at Malfoy and rubbed his hand mockingly. Then speaking with a very strong cockney accent he said, "You aint kissin' my hand."

Lisa exploded into a fit of giggles and Bones just smiled at his antics, already having noticed the scar on his forehead. Malfoy looked angry. He probably _was _angry.

"I'm sitting next to a street-rat!" He exclaimed with an outraged expression. Harry just smirked and pulled out his hand. He then continued in his own, normal accent which was for some reason upper class. Probably due to the fact that he spent so much time with those type of people.

"Ah, I am afraid not, Mr Malfoy. I am certainly not a 'street rat' as you put it. The name is Potter, Harry Potter," Draco Malfoy's eyes quickly went to his forehead and saw the scar and then he quickly took Harry's hand, a small scowl still in place. Lisa Turpin, meanwhile burst into another fit of giggles as she heard the reference to the muggle James Bond. Susan Bones just looked at her curiously with a raised eyebrow.

Harry then proceeded to kiss the ladies' hands as Malfoy had.

He despised the pureblood traditions, but he had learned long ago that the wizarding world wasn't going to change anytime soon. And playing the part of a pureblood heir would get him far in life. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to have Malfoy's alliance in the future. The boy would have great political power one day and as Harry was the heir to the Black Lordship, he would have to be on good terms with the future Malfoy head.

Inwardly, Harry frowned as he settled back into his seat, he was thinking like an ambitious Slytherin now. Not that it was bad, no, in fact it was rather good if he was sly to pull this whole act, the thing that worried him though was if the Sorting Hat decided to put him in Slytherin this time around. That would hinder his plans a lot as people were generally distrustful of Slytherins.

Then again, he didn't want to be sorted into Gryffindor again. That house had turned on him very quickly whenever he had been put in difficult positions. One day he was the hero, the next he was the devil incarnate.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard several gasps around him.

He looked up and saw Hogwarts (they had just turned the bend) in all it's glory. The last time he had seen the castle was when the Death-Eaters had blown it up after the battle of Hogwarts. The last time he had seen it, it was a pile of rubble and ashes. Suddenly, memories of the past crashed against him with full force. All the deaths. It was as if every single landmark here, meant something to him.

For example, on that field next to the tree, he had personally seen Su Li, a Ravenclaw, being raped by two Death-Eaters. And there, next to the cliffs-

"Potter, are you all right?" Harry blinked and turned his attention to Bones who was staring at him, he was suddenly aware of his slightly wet eyes. He nodded once and smiled at her, refusing to say anything. He looked around him.

Everyone else was still staring up at the castle in awe. Nobody except Bones had seen his reaction. He breathed out a sigh of relief. He would have to be more careful than this...

Soon, however they had arrived at the small cave leading into the castle. Hagrid left them there, with professor McGonagall so that she could take them to the Entrance hall.

She led them across the Entrance Hall and then showed them into a chamber not far off. It was so small, all the first years had to stand closer to each other than they normally would have. Malfoy looked outraged, as he stood next to Hermione Granger, he probably already knew that she was a muggle-born.

McGonagall seemed to look over the whole crowd for a few moments, as if deciding who was the troublemaker this year. Her eyes fell on Neville who had just found his toad once more. Next to him, Ron Weasley was picking his nose and spreading his snot on his wrinkled robes. McGonagall wrinkled her nose in distaste and eyed the rest of the first years.

Her eyes fell on Harry and her gaze lingered on him for a moment, taking in the confident and aristocratic air about him and she seemed to mentally nod in satisfaction.

"My name is Minevra McGonagall and I teach transfiguration here. Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup." She pursed her lips at this, probably remembering the fact that Slytherin had been winning the cup for several years in a row and then continued, "Now, I suggest you smarten yourselves up a bit," She stared pointedly at Ron and Neville who had his cloak fastened up under his left ear, "I shall return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly," She left the chamber.

Instantly whispers sprung up as no one was willing to speak loudly.

"How exactly do they sort us into our houses?" Harry heard Neville ask Ron who shrugged.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred says it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." Ron said loudly, attracting the attention from most of the first years. Harry felt Malfoy snigger beside him. His father had most likely already told him how they were sorted. Harry had a sudden feel of déjà vu, this was exactly the same conversation he had with Ron before his sorting.

Suddenly, though, there were gasps as a group of ghosts streamed through the back wall. They seemed to be arguing.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name, you know, he's not even really a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

"Ah," Harry started as it became clear that no one was going to answer, "We are the new first years, waiting to be sorted," He said. Some of the first years shot him thankful looks.

"Well," Said the friar, a fat little monk, "I hope to see you in Hufflepuff, my old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The sorting Ceremony is about to start." McGonagall had returned. One by one the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line, and follow me."

And so the first years walked out of the chamber, McGonagall leading them and walked across the Entrance Hall once more and then through the double doors.

The Great Hall was just like he remembered, a large, gothic looking room with many hundreds of candles lighting it up. Harry looked up at the ceiling, and smiled as he saw the starry sky instead. He heard Hermione whisper to a girl next to her, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in _Hogwarts: A History._

Harry then gave all his attention back to McGonagall, who had just finished placing the Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a three legged stool which looked like it needed to be repaired. Then the hat seemed to open it's mouth.

_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me._

You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!

The students and staff burst into applause and Harry eagerly joined in. Some other not-so-nervous first years also did the same. The hat then bowed to all four tables and then became still again.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," She said, "Abbot, Hannah." A girl with pigtales scrambled forwards and put on the hat quickly.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Bones, Susan."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brocklehurst, Mandy."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender."

"GRYFFINDOR"

"Bullstrode, Millicent."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Flinch-Fletchley, Justin."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Granger, Hermione."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Longbottom, Neville"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Malfoy, Draco."

"SLYTHERIN!"

There weren't many people left now, Moon, Nott, then Parkinson, the Patil twins went next, then Perks and then finally-

"Potter, Harry."

Harry walked elegantly forwards, head held high with confidence of his abilities. He strode to the stool and sat down elegantly. He barely registered the whispers, so used to them by now. The hat fell on his head, dropping over his eyes.

_Ahh, _Said the hat in his mind, _Harry Potter. You know I have been waiting to sort you for some time now._

Harry shrugged mentally, _Well, I'm honored. Anyhow, how are you doing, Arthur? _

Surprise echoed in his mind from the hat. Rather than asking, the hat just shuffled through his mind.

_Ah, a time and dimension-traveller._

_Sorry, I didn't quite catch that... Dimension? _Harry asked with surprise, yes, he had expected time-travel, but... Dimension travel?

_Yes, my dear boy, Dimension Travelling. You didn't seriously think Fate would let you travel into the past knowing you would try to change things and thus creating a time paradox? No, the other world still exists and currently those Death-Eaters are probably all fighting over each other, deciding who should be the next Dark Lord. No, my boy, you and Voldemort travelled to a different Dimension-_

_Wait, wait, wait, me and VOLDEMORT?_

_Ah, yes, child, you were both involved in the disaster. That means that he was also transported here. His spirit is still somewhere in Albania and the Voldemort from your world is probably merging himself with the spirit as we speak._

Harry gulped at the implications of this. He had planned on Voldemort underestimating him. No, he would have to learn, and study, then he would take care of the Horcruxes.

_You said, his spirit is in Albania, so that means that Quirell is perfectly normal?_

_Yes, that is Quirell, he is not possessed. But I suggest you watch over him, you never now, in this Dimension he may have found the spirit during the Christmas break..._

Harry thought of all the things, they now added up. In the other world, he had been smart, but not like this body, and he had also looked different. His fingers were never that long, his looks not so aristocratic. So that meant that in this Dimension, this Harry Potter was already a genius, or would have been if Harry hadn't merged his magical core and memories with him. He nodded mentally, everything made much more sense now.

_ I suggest we sort you now, the students are anxious to eat. I have gone through your memories, and I have decided that you have all of the traits the founders wished their students in their houses to have. So I have chosen to let you decide, or let me pick something random. _

Harry shrugged mentally, not really caring. Although, he did tell the hat subtly that Slytherin wasn't the best choice.

_Ah... Well, shall we go with random? Very well, you need a place in which you can learn and study, to finally once and for all defeat Voldemort. So I shall say:_

* * *

**Well, I was going to make a cliffhanger here, but that's just evil... So I'll continue the chapter. By the way, thanks for reading so far :D**

* * *

"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE'S APPRENTICE!"

The whole hall was silent, so silent in fact, that Harry could have heard a pin drop. He, himself was stunned. So far, he had never heard of this happening before and he groaned. _Why me?_

It took him a few seconds more to compose himself and then he gracefully stood up and pulled off the Sorting Hat and put it into McGonagalls frozen hands. He smiled at her disarmingly. She just stared back at him. This action seemed to wake Dumbledore up from his own stunned state and when Harry looked up at him the man was smiling, eyes twinkling so much Harry started to wonder if there was a charm to do that. And if yes, was Dumbledore using it?

"Well, this is a very interesting development. Well, Mr Potter choose a table to sit at for the feast. After the meal, please come to me and I shall take you to your quarters." He said with a smile.

Harry nodded once and shot him a smile, he then turned to the rest of the hall.

Gryffindor and Slytherin were out, one house would worship him, the other would hate him. He didn't need either. The Ravenclaws would just result in him getting a headache. The Hufflepuffs however, would probably just be friendly to him.

He then elegantly strode to the Hufflepuff table and sat down next to Susan Bones who beamed at him. Gazing about, Harry noticed a couple of the older Puffs shooting smug smirks at the other houses.

He smiled back gently at Susan Bones and then turned back to McGonagall who was still in shock. Dumbledore smiled gently at her.

"Minevra, could you please continue?"

She seemed to blink several times before she looked at her scroll once more and said the next name. By now there were only three people left.

"Turpin, Lisa."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Weasley, Ron."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Zabini, Blaise."

"SLYTHERIN!"

McGonagall then rolled up her scroll and made her way to her place at the head table. Dumbledore stood up and smiled at them all.

"Welcome!" he said, "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you," And then he sat down. Most of the students apart from the Slytherin house cheered and clapped. Even though Harry was used to his headmaster's peculiar behaviour, he hadn't seen it for about 30 years now. He heard Susan Bones say something to Hannah Abbot about the headmaster being mad and he chuckled.

"Ah!" Came a voice from Harry's right. Harry turned his head slightly to see who was talking to him. It turned out to be a what rather than a who.

"I'm honored that you chose to sit at our house table!" Said the fat Friar grinning at the first years who were all chatting with each other. After a quick question from the Friar, everyone introduced themselves. The eight Hufflepuffs that year were: Ernie Macmillan, Wayne Hopkins, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Zacharias Smith, Hannah Abbott, Megan Jones, and Susan Bones.

Harry didn't remember hearing all those names at the sorting so he supposed that he must have zoned out at some point. Shrugging, he picked out a couple of vegetables and some rice, wanting to keep all the fatty and greasy foods far, far away from his body.

When he was in his thirties, he had seen a movie called Zombieland where suddenly a disease broke out (the zombies) and they started killing humans and turning them into zombies. The first to go had been the fat people as they couldn't run very fast. And since then, Harry made a point of not becoming too fat, never mind the fact that it was easier to duel when one was fit.

"So what are you thinking about, Harry, some of your chemicals maybe?" Bones suddenly asked him. Harry supposed Hermione had told her about his reputation in the muggle world. Harry blinked, stared at her and finally said, "Zombieland."

The other first years at the table turned to stare incredulously at him. Bones rolled her eyes in a very un-pureblood way, "There is a fine line between genius and madness..." She told the other first years, "No wonder he was apprenticed to Dumbledore."

The students laughed, Harry smiled and then finally joined in the laughter when he saw the way Wayne Hopkins was laughing. He hadn't ever heard of a laugh as strange as his.

The students in the Hufflepuff house exchanged some more pleasantries, and jokes until the food disappeared and Dumbledore stood up once more. The hall fell silent almost immediatly.

"Ahem-just a few more words, now that we are fed and watered. I have a few notices to give you. First-years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. A few of out older students should also take note of that. I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will take place in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact madam Hooch," At this point, Harry's heart fell, how was he going to play Quidditch?

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Some people laughed at this proclamation. "And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbeldore cried. Several people's smiles had become slightly strained by now. He swished his wand, and a ribbon flew out from his wand which instantly formed the words of the song.

And then the school bellowed:

_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,  
_ _Teach us something please,  
_ _Whether we be old and bald,  
_ _Or young with scabby knees,  
_ _Our heads could do with filling,  
_ _With some interesting stuff,  
_ _For now they're bare and full of air,  
_ _Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
_ _So teach us things worth knowing,  
_ _Bring back what we've forgot,  
_ _Just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
_ _And learn until our brains all rot._

Fred and George were the last to finish as they sang to a very slow funeral march. Harry grinned as he caught sight of them, he hadn't seen them yet. And to see them, it was like a reassurance that everything was going to be all right in the end.

Harry noticed that the only ones not singing were the Slytherins who just started sourly at Dumbledore.

"Ah, music," the old man said, wiping his eyes, "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot! Mr Potter, kindly stay behind."

The houses, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw instantly shot off. The Ravenclaws intent on finally practicing some magic from their textbooks and the Gryffindors being... well... Gryffindors.

Once the double-doors finally cleared a little, the Hufflepuffs and the Slytherins stood up and left. Harry said his goodbyes to Bones and the rest of the Hufflepuffs and bid them all good-night. He then made his way up to the head table.

Most of the teachers were gone, only Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore had stayed behind. As he neared the table, Harry nodded to Snape and McGonagall as a sign of repect (after all, he did respect them) and turned to Dumbledore who grinned at him.

"Ah, my dear Harry. This is truly brilliant." He said happily. Harry saw Snape roll his eyes from the corner of his eyes and shot a small smirk in his direction. Dumbledore noticed and looked between them.

"Is there something I missed?" He asked. Snape stared back at him with an expressionless mask.

"Mr Potter and me are currently working on a project together. He had some rather good ideas which he did not know how to complete because of his lack of potions knowledge. I happened to lack the same type of knowledge in chemistry, so we will be working together to form a periodic system for potions ingredients."

McGonagall stared between them, blinked once, twice and then let out an exasperated sigh.

"When will you stop surprising me, Mr Potter?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. Harry just grinned.

"When I run out of things with which to surprise you with," He said. McGonagall rolled her eyes in a very uncharacteristic way, stood up, murmured something to Severus Snape and then they both left the hall with good nights.

And soon, it was Dumbledore and Harry alone in the large hall. Dumbledore smiled at Harry, his eyes twinkling full force. They started walking to the doors.

"So, my dear Harry, I shall show you to your quarters, now, we shall discuss the terms of your apprenticeship tomorrow, after your classes. Yes, Harry, I wish for you to attend your classes, if, and only if, you are excelling in your classes I shall teach you some more advanced magic. Understood?"

"The old apprenticeship quarters might be a bit dirty now, as they haven't been used for over 200 years. Let us hope that the house-elves have cleaned it up a little."

"House-elves?" Harry asked, remembering that he had to play the role of a muggle-raised boy. Dumbledore smiled at him.

"Small elf-like creatures who love to clean, we have the largest dwelling of them here at Hogwarts. I shall have one assigned to you as your personal house-elf. I trust you will not abuse that power?" The headmaster said sternly. Harry nodded once, showing that he understood.

They then walked in silence until they reached a portrait of a very old man with twinkling blue eyes, much like Dumbledore's. Harry stared at him curiously, the man stared back with the same curiosity.

"You will have to set the password sometime, and when you do, please tell me. I will need to know for the future if the need ever arrises. Now, do you have any questions?"

"You smell like lemon sherbet, do you like them?" Harry asked him innocently. Dumbledore's laughter echoed down the hallway.

* * *

**well, thank you for reading the story so far. i have had some guest reviews and I would like to thank those people so much. **

**So yeah...**

**erm... There is a large rectangle below this story in which you can write a small text regarding the story... Later you just have to press enter and you're all done. **

**Anyway, thanks for the reviews, follows and favourites so far. You guys are great :D  
**

**Oh yeah and guess who the man in the painting is...If you guess right, well... you guess right :D**


	6. Hogwarts

**Thank you so much for all the reviews, favourites and follows. I appreciate them so much. **

**Just to clear it up, Voldemort is also going to have the memories of his (past?) as I wanted the whole thing about killing Voldemort a little harder.**

**Oh yeah, does anyone know how to get a beta? Does anyone want to be my beta? thanks. You guys are the best :)**

**Disclaimer: I have never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter and I probably never will own Harry Potter**

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Yawning, Harry walked out of his dormitory, mumbling a good morning to the old man in the painting.

"Ah, I see you are awake, young man, would you like to set a password?" He said. Harry examined the painting closer than he had the first time. The man seemed very, very old and had long snowy white hair and a beard, much like Dumbledore. His face was narrow but lined with wrinkles and the eyes were a brilliant colour and twinkled with happiness.

The man's robes were a deep marine blue and had small moons covered it, complete with smileys on them. In the background, Harry could see a more beautiful and newer Hogwarts. At the Entrance there were four other young people whoo seemed to be fooling about. A man dressed in green, a woman in blue, another man in crimson and another woman in yellow.

Harry stared at the painting for a moment, suddenly realizing who all of these people were.

"You're the founders..." He mumbled. The man in green (Harry supposed this was Salazar Slytherin as a snake had just slithered onto his shoulders) raised a single eyebrow.

"Yes, I thought that was rather obvious, Anyhow, I am Salazar Slytherin, that is Godric, Rowena and Helga. The old coot standing there is Emrys Myriddin." Said Salazar. Rowena frowned at him and hit his shoulder with the book she was carrying.

"Sal, that is no way to talk about your teacher!" She exclaimed. Salazar just smirked at her and walked out of the painting. Almost all of that was lost on Harry while he was still recovering from the shock of seeing _Merlin_ of all things. Merlin, or as Salazar had said, Emrys, seemed to be amused as the corners of his mouth turned upwards slightly.

"So, young one, your password?" The old man prompted. Harry blinked a couple of times to clear his head and then carefully thought of what was the most appropriate password. Reaching a decision, he said, "International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry."

The men and women in the portrait stared at him before Merlin finally cleared his throat and nodded.

"Yes that will do. Thank you. Now off you go."

Harry instantly rushed off, not wanting to be told off by one of the most famous men on the planet, known by wizards and muggles alike. He decided that he was going to say he had memorised the way from the great hall the night before so that was how he found it.

As Harry neared the great hall, he started seeing more students who looked rather tired and seemed to be dragging themselves to breakfast. He saw some first years in the crowd every now and then and they all seemed excited as well.

As nice as it was to walk down the halls of Hogwarts again, it wasn't that nice to hear the whispers all around him, all probably concerning him. Nevertheless, after years and years of practice, Harry could ignore most of it.

As Harry entered the Great Hall he wondered where he was going to sit. He didn't want to sit at the Hufflepuff table because many people would complain about him not being fair to the other Houses. So for breakfast, Harry opted to sit at the Gryffindor table and he sat down at his old place.

There weren't many people in the Great Hall yet, only some seventh years re-reading their school textbooks and a couple of fifth year Slytherins who were probably discussing something very important as they both had dead serious expressions.

Snape, Trelawney, the ancient runes professor and Dumbledore were already there. Harry nodded to each of them when they made eye-contact with him. After having some toast and a couple of slices of bacon (he didn't want to eat too much fat) he was about to stand up when a time-table suddenly appeared on his bag. He raised his eyes to look around the hall, searching for the person with his or her wand out when he spotted Dumbledore grinning at him from the head table.

Shrugging, but smiling back, Harry looked down at his time-table and groaned.

Monday, first two periods: Potions.

Well, he hoped this time Potions wasn't going to be as bad as it had been the first time. Snape seemed to like him more this time, perhaps for his prowess in Chemistry. Shrugging Harry picked up the simple map of Hogwarts which had appeared seconds after the time-table. He made a point of searching for the potions classroom and then set off in that direction.

He had also noticed that for some reason, Harry was taking all his classes with the Gryffindors. Then again, Harry supposed it would take too much time to make a timetable for him which allowed him to have classes with all four houses.

He was the first one in the potions hallway, so he leaned against the wall and pulled out his first year potions book: _Magical Drafts and Potions._

About fifteen minutes later, the Slytherins started tickling into the hallway, after that the Gryffindors started coming in. Harry just leaned back into his darkened corner and prayed no one saw him. He didn't need to be an object in a museum just this early into the day.

About another fifteen minutes later, the door swung open and Harry frowned as he remembered seeing Snape up at the head-table. How had the man come down without Harry seeing him... Mentally shrugging, Harry reasoned that there was some type of secret passageway for all the teachers to come through to get to their classes.

When the class filed in, Harry wasn't surprised when he saw that all the Gryffindors and Slytherins had parted and there seemed to be a type of invisible wall between the two sides of the classroom. And the Slytherins were already glaring at the Gryffindors. The house of the brave and noble, however, glared back and Harry suddenly thought that Dumbledores efforts to promote inter-house unity were more or less useless.

Tapping his chin in thought, Harry didn't even look at where he had sat down. Only when he felt the eyes of everyone in the classroom on him did he realize that he was sitting right in the middle of the class, between Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom who were both staring at each Harry with bewilderment. Probably because he had sat in the invisible border separating the two houses.

Raising an eyebrow at them, Harry said, "I'm promoting inter-house relations." Neville blinked at his proclamation and then seemed to slowly gather his Gryffindor courage. Then he slowly extended a hand to Malfoy in the standard pure-blood way.

"My name is Neville heir of the Ancient House of Longbottom," Everyone stared in amazement as Malfoy took his hand with a small smirk.

"Pleased to meet you Mister Longbottom, I am Draco scion of the Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy."

"Five points to Gryffindor and Slytherin for promoting inter-house relations." Came a voice from the teacher's table. Everyone's heads turned so fast, Harry heard a couple of cracks in the class. Snape was grimacing slightly, probably at the thought of giving Gryffindor house points. Then again, Harry thought, Dumbeldore would probably make him give Gryffindor points anyway if he ever heard of what had happened and he would no doubt hear it soon.

Snape then moved his eyes to Harry, piercing him with the black depths. Harry pulled up what thin Occlumency shields and traps that he could. But frankly, he was still very bad at it, even after all those years.

However, Snape didn't even try breaking in, he raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Now, Mr Potter, I would give you house points as well, but I am afraid you do not belong in any house here at Hogwarts," He said softly, his eyes never leaving Harry's.

The man then snapped his head to Ron Weasley's direction and examined him. The boy in question was sitting next to Hermione Granger and Seamus Finnegan. Harry felt regret for a moment as he had not befriended them this time along. But these were completely different people to those who had sacrificed their lives for him.

"Weasley! Tell me what will I get if I add Powdered Root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?" Snape asked. Harry blinked in surprise, that was exactly the same question he had been asked. Maybe Snape asked an unfortunate first year every year?

The poor red-head looked stumped. He rolled his eyes at Hermione, who was waving her hand in the air, eagerly trying to prove herself.

"I don't know." Ron finally muttered. Snape raised an eyebrow at him then turned to Harry who was staring at a bookshelf not that far off with lots of rare books.

"Potter!" Snape barked. Harry raised his head to look at Snape, "if you would answer the question?"

"They make sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death," Harry said with a smile, "I believe we are going to be making that potion in our sixth year."

Snape nodded once. Harry was then surprised when the next question was directed at him, not at Ron.

"What is the difference between monkshood and Wolfsbane?"

Harry narrowed his eyes slightly at the man who seemed to be smirking. He vaguely remembered Snape asking the same question last time and forced himself to remember what he had studied in the past. In the corner of his eye, Harry saw Hermione almost standing up in her seat, so eager to answer. Some of the people around her glared at the muggle-born.

"Nothing but the name." Harry stated

curly and saw a brief flash of surprise in the potion master's eyes before he continued, "It is also known as Aconite." He finished with a small smirk. Snape pursed his lips and nodded.

"Acceptable, Potter, Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" There was a sudden rumaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "Ah, and Weasley, five points from Gryffindor for not opening a book before coming here."

And like that the five points that Neville had earned, were gone.

A few minutes later, once Snape had more or less explained the theory (which not many people understood) of the potion to cure boils, everyone was put into pairs to brew the potion.

Harry winced as he was partnered up with Neville.

At some point during their potion making, Neville almost put in a wrong ingredient which would make the cauldron melt and then explode. Luckily enough, Harry noticed a few seconds before he did so and managed to save their potion.

At the end of the lesson, Neville and Harry were grinning as they bottled their potion and wrote their name on the cork. It had turned out perfectly perfect. And so they walked out of the potions classroom, Harry a much happier person and Neville a much more confident one.

...

After lunch that day, (classes had already ended. For him anyway.) Harry made his way to Dumbledore's office, 'using the map'. The man was already sitting behind his desk even though he had left the Great Hall after Harry had. This enforced Harry's belief that the teachers had secret passageways to get to their classrooms or in Dumbledore's case his office.

Harry stared around the office in amazement. Even after so many years he was still amazed by the amount of devices the man had around the office. Fawkes was sitting on his perch and Harry stared in amazement at the bird. So far, he had only ever seen the bird on burning and near-burning day. After the death of Dumbledore the bird seemed to have disappeared and he had never seen him ever again.

Dumbledore smiled at Harry when he turned to him and gestured to the comfortable seat in front of him. Harry nodded in thanks and sat down. Instantly, Fawkes launched off his perch and landed swiftly on Harry's shoulder who yelped in surprise.

Dumbledore chuckled at Harry.

"That's a Phoenix, this one happens to be my familiar (a friend who his bonded to you and not human). His name is Fawkes."

Harry settled down after his initial shock and gingerly stroked Faweks' soft feathers. The bird leaned into the touch and Harry smiled as something akin to a purr escaped it's... erm... beak.

"Now, Harry, I believe we still have to discuss your apprenticeship?" Harry nodded once and then let him continue, "Well, before we start, you need some basic information on apprentices. You see, in the time of the founders of Hogwarts (about 900 AD), there were many more apprentices than there are now. Earlier, there were several bonds between the master and the apprentice which ensured complete loyalty from both parties to each other. This ritual envolves blood-magic. A branch of magic which requires blood to work. These rituals were then banned as the Ministry claimed they were dark. This is of course not true." The old man paused to see if Harry had any questions.

Harry frowned, "What exactly _is _dark magic? I mean, I read a lot in the summer, trying to find as much information as possible on dark and light spells after I heard it mentioned in one of my text-books. I was confused, from what I understood, dark spells are mostly those that maim and kill, so wouldn't a levitation spell be considered dark. One could levitate a heavy object on one's head and kill them like that. So I came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as dark and light spells, only spells that maim and kill directly and spells which help out with one's daily life." As Harry finished, he saw Dumbledore smiling at him. His eyes were twinkling brightly and proudly behind the half-mooned glasses. Inwardly, Harry winced slightly. Had he showed too much understanding of the theory of magic too early? Dumbledore, however, didn't seem to notice anything amiss or suspicious because he continued.

"Yes, very well done, Harry, you are right, of course. Anyhow, back to apprentices and apprenticeships: there are other rituals which could make you my official apprentice, but for that we would have to be (magical) relatives. Therefore, I have come to the decision to adopt you, magically (that would also make you my heir). That would be if you agreed."

Harry stared at him for a moment, his mouth even opened slightly in shock. He had been expecting several things, perhaps an illegal blood-magic bond, or not doing the bond at all. But he had not been expecting this. This would mean that he would live with Dumbledore in the holidays, the man would be his legal guardian. And an official Grandfather.

"Harry..." Dumbledore said carefully and Harry was snapped out of him daze. He grinned at Dumbledore, his eyes shining slightly.

"Yes!" He exclaimed loudly, but then continued in a slightly lower tone, "That would be simply magnificent. Thank you, Albus."

Dumbledore smiled back gently, "Do you have any more questions, Harry?"

Harry thought for a moment.

"Well, is there a charm to make your eyes twinkle?"

...

When Harry (on Thursday morning) walked into the common room of the apprentice quarters, there was a notice on the bulletin board which had been placed there by the house-elves. It was a notice to notify all the houses at what times they would have their flying lesson.

Harry, knowing that he took all his lessons with the Gryffindors, memorized the time for when they would have their flying lesson. He blinked when he saw that it was that afternoon. Personally, he was surprised it was all on such a short notice.

Today, Harry ate at the Slytherin table, having eaten at the Ravenclaw table the day before.

He watched the Slytherins interact with each other and smirked to himself. The first years still hadn't perfected their masks of indifference yet and Harry could almost feel the excitement rolling off them in waves when Malfoy said something about flying lessons.

Soon Malfoy started boasting about how good he was on a broom. He even claimed he had escaped from muggle helicopters once when they spotted him flying through New York. Harry snorted into his ceral at that but luckily no one noticed. Well, except Malfoy who mock-glared at his 'friend'.

Well, 'friend' was overestimating it. Malfoy and Harry had made a sort of alliance, the moment they had met each other, Malfoy had felt the power rolling off Harry, in fact, everyone felt it. Even in the great hall where there were so many magical signatures, Harry's somehow managed to overpower them all and send out pulses of comfortable magic.

So of course, the Malfoys always being the one's allied with the ones holding the greater power, had allied themselves with Harry. Well, Draco had. Lucius was still that fanatic follower of Voldermort.

And since Harry had been accepted by Malfoy, almost the whole Slytherin house followed suit, just because Malfoy was the Slytherin Prince.

_well, after I die in this dimension, and if I am transported into yet another one, I will have the hat sort me into Slytherin. Then I will become the next Slytherin Prince, I want to see the way things work around here, _Harry thought.

After exchanging polite conversation with some of the students of his year and the ones above him, Harry stood up and made his way to the transfiguration classroom.

The door was already open when he walked in and he noticed Hermione and Terry Boot (Ravenclaw) already there having a discussion about a second year transfiguration spell.

Chuckling at Hermione's flushed face (from arguing so much), he turned to the cat sitting on the desk. Dropping his bag to the side, he started scratching the cats head, knowing perfectly well who the cat was.

McGonagall leaned into the touch and Harry grinned at her.

"I didn't know that something so simple as glasses could be passed onto an animagus form..." he whispered to her and saw her eyes widen. He gave her a small smile and dragged his bag to the seat behind Hermione.

The two other students turned to stare at him. Harry raised an eyebrow in question. Hermione blushed slightly, realizing she had been staring at him.

"Sorry, it's just... er... we... we discussed you in our science class at muggle school. Everyone knows you are a prodigy. I should have known you are a wizard."

Terry Boot just looked confused and asked Hermione what she was talking about. Hermione beamed at him.

"Well, what I heard about him..." She started. Harry groaned as he realized she was going to tell Boot his whole academic success. He noticed McGonagall listening raptly to Hermione. Dumbledore probably didn't even tell the staff about him. About five minutes later, Hermione finished and still no one appeared in the class other than a quiet muggle-born from Ravenclaw. He heard that Hermione and Boot were talking about Harry and joined in happily. Saying that he had been his inspiration to start studying, in all this time he didn't even notice Harry.

"So, anyway, my name is Kevin Entwhistle." He said beaming at them. Hermione grinned back.

"I'm Hermione Granger and that's Terry Boot, you already know him I suppose and this is..." Harry interrupted her and extended his hand to Kevin who's eyes widened as he took in Harry's face.

"My name is Harry Potter."

Kevin then blushed and took Harry's hand slowly as if afraid that it would break, staring at Harry with an awe-filled expression. Hermione grinned at him.

"That was my reaction too, when I saw him in the train."

Harry mentally rolled his eyes, same ol' Hermione, always talking about what she thought.

Kevin was about to say something when a bell rang and at that very same moment, a large group of people ran into the room, not wanting to be late.

Once they had settled down, McGonagall transformed into her human body. Several people gasped. She smiled tightly.

"For future references, tardiness will not be tolerated and detentions shall be given out." She then started talking about how difficult transfiguration was. Then she talked about the theory of turning a wooden match stick into a silver needle. And then finally, they were given the assignment to transfigure the matchstick into a needle. Harry zoned out on all of this and only gave her his total attention when she placed a matchstick in front of him.

They were told the incantation and then paired off with someone so that the other person could tell them what they were doing wrong, _if _they were doing something wrong.

Harry was unfortunately paired up with Kevin, who was like an older Colin Creevy. Harry smiled at the boy and gestured to the match.

"Why don't you try first?" He asked. The boy nodded numbly and seemed to wave his wand in a random pattern and say the words incorrectly. Harry took pity on him and helped him with the movement and the wording.

The boy did it again. This time the matchstick turned slightly shinier and more metallic-looking. The boy looked delighted.

"Yes, and now it is all a matter of practice."

Kevin grinned back at him and started repeating the spell over and over.

Harry suddenly felt a shadow loom over him and he looked up to see McGonagall staring at him, "Well, Mr Potter, please change your matchstick into a needle..." She said sternly. Harry smiled.

"With pleasure."

He then proceeded to gather his magic. He heard several gasps as his classmates noticed how the magic seemed to leave the room and go back to Harry. Taking a small breath, Harry channelled his magic from his core all to way to his hand and then wand. He then whispered the spell.

Seconds later the transfiguration was done and there were several gasps around him. Harry smirked at McGonagall and then looked at his match (now needle). It was a beautiful needle(if needles can be beautiful...) made out of silver. It seemed so pointy that it could have easily drawn blood from any person. And there at the very end of the pin, there was a coat of arms engraved into the surface. Everyone leaned in to look at the coat of arms. One look at the single phoenix on it, everyone knew it was the Potter crest.

McGonagall cleared her throat.

"Er... Well done Mr Potter, congratulations on making such an impressive transfiguration... Now all of you! Get back to work!"

...

Harry relished the feeling of the wind on his face as he stepped out onto the quidditch field. It was nice being back there. He hadn't played a game for more than fifty years and he sorely missed it.

Realizing he wasn't listening to Madam Hooch, he turned his attention to her.

"Raise your hand over the broom and say 'up'."

Harry saw Malfoy's broom fly straight into his hand, Neville's did to, surprisingly. Hermione had to coax for some time, but it eventually reached her hand. Harry's swooped into his hand as well.

They were then instructed to jump into the air, hover there for a few second and then touch back down. Harry did so and then the whistle went of.

He shot up with the rest of his classmates and managed to keep his balance. He then touched back down, staring at his broom with confusion. Up in the air, he had always felt a sense of belonging and warmth. Now though, the moment he had jumped into the air, he had felt fright.

He was afraid of heights.

This other Harry was afraid of heights.

The rest of the lesson passed as a flying lesson normally would. Malfoy didn't take anyone's rememberall (partly because as two noble houses, he and Neville had made an alliance much like Harry had) and nobody broke their wrist.

And as Harry walked back to his dorm, he was sad, sad that he would always be afraid of flying. Back in his own world he had been gifted with another type of genius. He had been gifted with a natural flying talent. However, in this world he had been gifted with intelligence and magic. They were two completely different types of genius.

And with those thoughts, Harry walked to the dormitory.

...

It was exactly two days before Halloween and Albus was pleased to notice that Harry had top marks in every subject. It was now that they were having a teachers conference, discussing every single student from first year to seventh. The teachers did this three times a year. Always at the very beginning, middle and end of the year.

Like that they could discuss their concerns about the students and talk with other teachers about them.

Right now, they were on the letter 'p' for the first years. They were currently talking about the Patil twins and Albus found that he was anxious to hear what the teachers thought of Harry.

"And now, Potter, Harry." Minevra finally said with a small smile. The name seemed to cause similar expressions on the rest of the staff, except Severus of course. He had a sour expression on his face for every name called anyway.

"He's a wonderful student! Your dream student really. Does all his assignments, his essays are structured well with good arguments and very amazing advanced examples," Filius said with a dreamy smile. Albus of course already knew about this as the teachers forwarded him all the essays his apprentice did, "He masters all the spells within the first try and then helps the rest of the students do it as well."

The other teachers nodded in agreement.

"Yes," Said Pomona, "The child is very smart intellectually and all of his practicals are almost flawless but he lacks Longbottoms green thumb."

"Severus?" Albus asked him as the man was scowling at his stack of notes.

"Fine, I'll praise the boy if you wish me to. He is simply and outrageously intelligent when it comes to potions and chemistry. We have been working on a periodic system for potions ingredients and I now know that without his genius with chemistry I would never have achieved what we have so far achieved. I predict that by Christmas our ideas will be published and the book will be sold out."

The staff didn't even bother staring or being surprised, to used to Harry Potter surprising them everyday.

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**So, thanks for all of those who have read so far. My e-mail was mulfunctioning for the last 10 days so I didn't get some reviews. Normally, I reply to all reviewers, regardless if the review is short. So I'm sorry to those who did not get a reply.  
**

**From now all I will try to reply to everything :D**


	7. The Capture

**Hello again! Well, thank you all for reading so far. Special thanks to all the reviewers and followers. I appreciate everything sooooo much. **

**Well, in this chapter you get a little taste of Voldy :D**

**Disclaimer: I never owned Harry Potter, I don't own Harry Potter, I will never own Harry Potter...**

* * *

It wasn't very often that Harry was worried, usually he was confident in his powers and skills, but at this moment, they, the whole student body, was sitting in their seats in the Great Hall, waiting for the Halloween feast to start.

Quirrell was gone, he had disappeared the day before, and Harry, along with most of the other students, had been told at lunch the other day that Quirrell was gone on an expedition in Albania, in search for Vampires he could talk to.

This of course worried him, because the first time around the man had ended up been possessed by Voldemort. Harry's face darkened at the thought of Voldemort, and the other students (he was sitting at the Gryffindor table) shrank away from him slightly.

The man had killed his parents, his friends, his students (Harry had taught at Hogwarts for a short while, during the rebellion, by sneaking into the Room of Requirements when Hogwarts had been won over by Voldemort) and ordered others to kill and maim as well.

Bellatrix.

She was second on his to-kill list, the first being Voldemort himself. The woman had killed Harry's godfather- Harry choked on his pumpkin juice as he suddenly remembered his godfather. Harry stared horrified at the wall opposite him, had he really _forgotten _his godfather. Groaning, Harry realized he had been too happy to see everyone again, all his friends and teachers alive and well, to realize his godfather was still rotting in Azkaban, which was basically Hell on thoughts were then interrupted when Lavander suddenly exclaimed, "Where's Ron!?"

Harry blinked and looked around him, and noticed that Lavander was right, Ron was nowhere to be seen. Horror crashed upon him once more, if Quirrell had come back (and he had as Harry had seen him lurking around the kitchens after lunch) then the Troll was probably running wild around the castle.

"I don't know," Hermione said, once again pulling Harry out of his thoughts, "I thought I heard Seamus telling a Hufflepuff earlier that Ron was feeling sick in the bathroom earlier. I think he said that Ron felt sick on the way here, he might be on the third or fourth floor boys bathroom."

Groaning, Harry looked up at the sky, almost as if begging God to stop punishing him for all his mistakes.

Harry shut his eyes, trying to brush away all the pain and horror he was feeling right now and concentrate on the task ahead of him. How could he have become so careless... He had the advantage of knowing, of having the knowledge to change things and avoid unnecessary deaths. This was his chance to create _peace._ Well, for some time at least. Until another Dark Lord sprung up from nowhere.

That was when he felt Voldemort's magic, albeit weakened, standing outside the door, with Quirels aura stuck on. And then suddenly, the doors of the Great Hall crashed open and Quirel ran through them.

Harry's eyes opened quickly and then unblinkingly, followed his movements. Why was Voldemort repeating this whole fiasco when the philosopher's stone wasn't even at the school?

"Troll on the third floor, left wing! Troll on the third floor, left wing! LEFT WING! TROLL!"

Then at this, Quirrell ran out of the Great Hall, seemingly in search for the Troll. Frowning, Harry suddenly remembered that Ron was still in the bathroom and on the third floor. That was a rather peculiar coincidence, and Harry didn't believe in them.

He turned his attention to the hall, which had silenced suddenly.

And then chaos won over.

In seconds, the Great Hall seemed to have transformed in to a cage-full of 'freshly caught pixies'. With a sonorus, Dumbledore quieted the hall down and instructed the prefects to take the students back to their respectable houses.

And so the moment the doors of the the hall opened, Harry ran out, Hermione, Draco, Neville, Susan and Lisa, following him quickly.

Lisa, the fittest of the group, running behind Harry, quickly caught up with him, she quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back, stopping him. The others, quickly caught up on the deserted corridor.

"What are you doing! You're running straight to the Troll! We all know you're powerful, but a Troll is something not to be messed with!"

And then, slowly, albeit dangerously, Harry turned to face them, unleashing his magic from the blocks he had put on it. He met all five pars of eyes, and he knew that instant that his five classmates were completely terrified and in awe of his power. He himself could feel it pulsing everywhere in the corridor, not to mention the school and he was suddenly wary of the reaction he would get from Dumbledore. It was literally impossible to have so much power in a child's magical core and Harry knew that Dumbledore would know this as well. If any normal child had such power in their core, it would undoubtedly explode from being filled with too much magic. Then again Harry could pass it off as him maturing early and being abnormal. He was aware that his body was growing hot and he threw Lisa a worried glance, if she didn't let go soon, she would be burnt.

The five Hogwarts students cowered before Harry as they witnessed for the first time, a serious and angry Harry Potter (which was very rare as he was usually very calm and collected, his thoughts and emotions hidden by his flimsy occlumency skills).

"Ron is currently up there," Harry spoke with a voice that promised death to anyone who tried to kill his friends, "And if I don't have time to finish that troll, or at least rescue him from the bathroom, he shall die. A painful and torture-filled death committed by one pissed off Troll who seems eager to eat. So if you don't allow me to pass, I shall have to take more severe measures than a simple slap on the hand."

And as he finished with his little speech, they parted and Lisa let go of his arm with a silent gasp, probably because she burnt herself. But at this moment, Harry couldn't bring himself to care.

So, one last serious look at them, he sped off to the direction of the third floor boys bathroom. He would have to be quick, knowing his friends, they would run after him.

As he reached the third floor, a terrible stench assaulted him. Worse than the stench of a regular mountain troll. It was so bad, that Harry's eyes started to water and he quickly sent a freshening charm down the hall. Harry closed his eyes for a few seconds, praying that this wasn't a cross breeding between a giant and a troll. Voldemort had used those against the rebels, after he took over Hogwarts.

Therefore, the moment he stepped into the bathroom, he groaned.

It was a Troll-Giant.

The Troll-Giant seemed to take up about half of the bathroom, his club another eighth. His general shape was like a small giant but with troll features, his chest was huge (and hairy) and his shoulders broad. There was a single horn plastered right on top of his head, which reminded Harry of a rhino.

How _did _Giants reproduct with other species. For example, how was Hagrid made? Harry was fairly sure that no sane man would and could reproduct with a giant- Harry was then interrupted from his thoughts as another stall crashed down and became rubble. Sucking in a deep breath, Harry cast a strong invisibility and sent-protecting spell on himself. It wouldn't do for the troll to smell him and then go after him, much like the basilisk in his second year had done.

Then, with those thoughts, Harry started his search for Ron.

His seeker-sharp eyes quickly found Ron hiding under the sink, much like Hermione had done in his past life. Harry quickly ran to Ron, dodging pieces of wood and stone that occasionally flew by him. Ron was unconscious, his head was bleeding and Harry was sure that his wrist was twisted at an unnatural angle. Harry quickly cast the same spells on Ron as he had on himself and quickly grabbed his arm.

That was when he noticed how quiet it was.

Slowly turning around, Harry found himself face to face with Quirrell.

And the man was staring straight at him.

...

_And the man was staring straight at him. _

Harry slowly looked around for the troll, only to find him in a corner, sleeping and sucking his thumb. Harry looked at it weirdly, how could a thing like that still suck it's thumb? Then again, it was a troll he was dealing with. They were all idiots.

His eyes then moved back to Quirrell's - no - Voldemort's. Harry could already see the crimson eyes slowly getting rid of the chocolate-brown Quirrell once had.

"So, Potter, Fate has once more proved that we are complete equals. I fear we shall have to continue fighting until the end of time," Voldemort said through Quirrell's mouth and Harry suddenly felt sorry for Quirrell, the man had actually been an O.K. teacher when he wasn't possessed by Voldemort. Harry then felt five familiar magical signatures arrive at the doorway and he inwardly groaned. If Voldemort had noticed his friends standing there, he didn't say anything because he continued to stare at Harry.

Harry was grateful, though, that his friends hadn't said anything. It would be disastrous if Voldemort turned his full attention on them. Not to mention, they would be avada kedevra-ed.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the man.

"Shall we finish the duel which we never finished?" Harry asked Voldemort, trying to keep the man's attention on something other than his friends.

"Ah," Voldemort said with a sigh, which almost sounded sincere, "I'm afraid I have other plans for you. You see, I knew that the moment you knew one of your friends was facing death, you would rush off to save them because of your saving people complex. That is why I told one of my admirers to slip in a puking potion into your friends lunch-"

"Quit the dramatics, Tom, and get to the point," Harry snarled, cutting the Dark Lord off. Voldemort narrowed his eyes.

"Very well, if you wish for me to 'get to the point', I shall."

And with that, Voldemort threw a galleon at him. When Harry realized with horror what it was, it was already to late. He felt the pull at his navel and soon he, Ron and ol' Voldy, were gone, leaving five very afraid students.

...

Harry almost groaned as he slowly came back into himself, and he forced himself to return his breathing to mimic a sleeping person's breathing. Deep and measured breaths.

Abeforth Dumbledore had taught him this, if you were captured by the enemy, the first thing to do was to fake sleep and take in as much information as possible.

And so, Harry slowly took in his surroundings with his sense of smell, touch and hearing. He was somewhere damp, he could hear water dripping somewhere in the distance. He could also smell a copper and metallic smell in the air and concluded that it was blood. So either torture chambers or dungeons. Or both.

He could hear somebody sleeping nearby, almost snoring and he soon concluded that it was Ron.

And after reaching this conclusion, Harry slowly opened his eyes. There was no difference really, none at all. He quickly gathered his magic, to cast a wandless lumos spell (which he had been re-learning to do wandlessly) when he felt the wards in the cell, cast so that no one could do magic inside it except the caster.

They were weak, and if Harry had a wand he would be able to bring them down, but wandlessly he had no chance. Of course, he could have done it in his own universe...

Instead, he slowly dragged himself in the direction from which he could hear the ragged breathing. He slowly shook Ron up when he reached him and he felt a jolt go through the body underneath him and he heard a gasp.

"W-w-here are w-w-we?" Harry heard Ron whisper. Harry smiled gently at the boy, aware that he probably couldn't see him.

"It's all right Ron, I'll get us out of here." Harry said gently and patted Ron's shoulder.

"W-what h-happened?" The red-head said with a grim tone, he probably guessed though.

"Erm... Well, I'm afraid that our dear Professor Quirel was being possessed by ol' Voldy. He managed to capture us, by taking me by surprise with a portkey. (At this Harry was painfully reminded of Cedric and him arriving at the graveyard via portkey) I suppose we are in some kind of castle or manor of his, in the dungeons of course. I checked myself for my wand, but I couldn't find mine... I think they searched us. They even took my dagger away." Harry said as gently as possible. He heard Ron shift and then raise himself to lean against the damp wall.

"Well," Harry could now hear the confidence coming back to Ron's voice, "I don't know about you, but I don't keep my wand in a wand holster on my arm..."

Harry could almost feel the grin in the other boy's voice and he felt hope flood him. Was it possible that Ron still had his wand? He then felt Ron shift beside him and reach down to his belt. Seconds later Harry felt the magical belt turn into a wand. Harry stared in the general direction where Ron was with a wide-eyed expression.

"My brother Charlie charmed it like that, it was his wand earlier, you see, so he did some wicked charms on it. When he gave it to me I never got rid of the charms. I mean, how many wand-belts do you see every day?" Ron said happily. Harry grinned and patted Ron on the shoulder.

"You know Ron, you're a genius," He jumped as he realized something, "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Harry Potter,"

"I figured, I can feel your power raidiating from here you know... Anyhow, I'm Ron Weasley, Gryffindor." He said, "Anyhow, you're better at magic than I am, take the wand, get us out of here."

Harry felt Ron pass the wand over to him and he stared, unseeing, at the red-heads wand. A wand was a very personal thing. For a wizard to intrust another with it showed amazing trust and loyalty. Harry once more patted his shoulder.

"Thanks mate," Harry said happily. He then got to work on dismantling those wards, after checking for alarms. He then helped Ron up and they slowly creeped from their cell. Harry was surprised to see no guards in front of their cell and he held up Ron's wand higher up to cast more light into the hallway.

Wrinkling his nose at the strong smell of blood, they slowly made their way up the stairs, at the top of which they could see a door with light streaming out from under it.

The door was open and Harry slowly pulled Ron and himself out, frowning as he did so. At the back of his mid there was something nagging him, it all seemed too convenient. The wand probably was a mistake, as it was very well hidden. But the rest... It was all as if Voldemort wanted them to escape.

As they walked out to a pair of grand staircases, Harry remembered with a jolt that they were at Malfoy manor. He remembered it from the time they were kid-napped by the snatchers when they were searching for the the horcruxes.

"Er... Is there anyone here?" Ron whispered to Harry who shrugged and looked down at his and Ron's appearances. They were both amazingly thin, as if they hadn't eaten anything for months and he noticed several slashes across Ron's body where the clothes were ripped. He was bloody in some areas and as Harry looked down at himself, he realized he was in a same state. Frowning Harry looked at Ron.

"It seems like they tortured us in our sleep and then obliviated us, perhaps for about a month, we _are _after all amazingly thin." Harry said with a shudder. Ron looked just as horrified. And then with a jolt, Harry realized he was very,very hungry. "They've probably been feeding us nutrient potions so that we don't die of starvation."

"Erm... Harry you should look you of the window..." Ron said with a long and deep breath, as if trying to calm himself. Harry's eyes moved in the direction in which Ron's eyes were and his eyes widened as he took everything in.

Outside, there was a large garden, filled with beautiful trees. But what worried him wasn't that. It was the snow.

"We're in the bloody winter!" Ron whispered, shocked. Harry blinked. Had they really been here for at least two months? They were captured in October.

"_Tempus,_" Harry whispered. Instantly, the date and time appeared in front of them.

_25th December, 1991._

_4:30 pm. _

"It's Christmas morning," Ron said quietly. Harry nodded along and put a hand on Ron's shoulder.

"I'll get you out of here, I promise."

Ron smiled at him sadly, his eyes slightly damp.

That was when they heard the foot-steps. Harry's eyes widened and was about to hide, when he noticed there was nowhere around to hide. Well, except the fireplace which was lit. Unfortunately there was no floo-powder to be seen. He turned to Ron and urgently said, "Just take my lead, I'm going to glamour you, it's just a charm which changes your appearance."

Ron nodded once, somewhat frantically.

He then quickly charmed Ron to look like Blaise Zabini and himself to look like Theodore Nott, he then transfigured their robes to an upper class pure-blood fashion. And then with a final sweep of his wand, he cleaned them up with a harsh scourgify. And he finished this just as Narcissa Malfoy walked into the room.

She looked up at them with surprise and then she smirked a little.

"Ah, Theodore, Blaise, it's a pleasure to see you. We weren't expecting you. I suppose Draco forgot to tell me that you were comming today," She held out her hand to be kissed in the standard pure-blooded way. Harry took it in stride and kissed her hand gently, so did Ron. Harry was very amazed at how lucky they were that it was the Christmas Holidays and that Draco was at home.

"Ah, Lady Malfoy, we just got through the floo," he said and gestured to the fire-place behind them, amazed at their good luck. Narcissa nodded once.

"Shall I lead you to Draco's room?" She asked. Harry forced himself not to shrug, pure-bloods didn't do that.

"Yes, thank you, my lady."

They walked in silence to a pair of double doors. Narcissa just smirked at them and left, gesturing at the door. As she disappeared, Harry turned to look at Ron and grinned. The other boy grinned back.

Harry then knocked on the door.

There was a cold 'enter' from inside and Harry swung the door open.

Draco was lying on a huge bed in the middle of a huge room, covered with so many toys it reminded Harry of Dudley on Christmas. Draco raised his head to look up at them and he scowled.

"What are you doing here, Not, Zabini? I thought I told you to stay away from me, I know perfectly well who my friends are, thank you very much-" He was then interrupted as Harry pulled out Ron's wand and waved it over Ron and himself.

Harry grinned at Draco who stared at them, wide-eyed. Almost a full minute passed like that until Ron spoke up, "So, Malfoy, can I have one of those chocolate frogs?"

Harry and Draco turned to stare at him. Ron had the decency to flush.

"Why are you here?" Draco asked with wonder on his face, completely dropping his pure-blood mask, "How did you get away from the Dark Lord? You know, everyone thinks you are dead." He said bluntly. Harry blinked and then chuckled.

He shrugged apologetically, "Well, long story short, Voldy captured us, he was possessing Quirrel, and then put us in your dungeon. And for the last two months we have been tortured. We escaped today, well now, when we woke, Voldy probably forgot to put a sleeping charm aver us as he has done in the past." Harry said cheerfully. Draco stared at him and Ron.

"And now you want me to help you get back to Hogwarts? Oh, by the way, you two looked like two Azakaban prizoners."

...

A few hours later, after Draco had called his elf and fed the two starving boys and told them the latest news, the two former captives each took a handful of floo-powder and quickly escaped through the floo in Draco's room.

Harry landed more or less gracefully in a fireplace in the great hall, closely followed by Ron who stumbled and had to take Harry's shoulder for support. Harry helped Ron get steady, then straightened up and looked around the Great Hall.

It appeared they had arrived in the middle of the evening Christmas feast. The only one's there were the Weasley family, Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Treawelnea, Sinastra, Flitwick, Sprout, a seventh year Ravenclaw, Neville Longbottom and surprisingly Remus Lupin.

Harry grinned at them all and waved his hand and said, "Hi!"

He then fainted.

* * *

**Thank you for reading so far. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. **

**Anyhow, is there someone interested in being my beta? I urgently need one. **

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